Gender Stratificaiton in the Workplace - Essay Example

Musa Muhammad Bala Academia Research 7/3/2007 GENDER STRATIFICATION IN WORKPLACE The web definition of Gender says "is a socially acquired characteristic, and includes psychological, social and cultural characteristics, such as ideas about "masculinity" and "femininity". (Definition of Gender on the Web) While Gender Stratification refers to inequality in terms of capacity, prestige and additionally including wealth possession, which is scale based on sex differences. There are gender stratifications in the working places, sexual harassment and many other ill-attitudes that are related to the subject matter. Meanwhile, this discussion will primarily focus on Gender Stratifications in the working places, how this phenomenon is changed over the past few decades, and above all, its will be relate to Canadian workplace. However, Gender Stratification is a global phenomenon, which touches almost all countries, though the level of it differs among the countries. All countries being from Asia, Europe, Africa, America and all parts of the world have either suffering from the subject, or find that once had came across it. In Canada, Sociological analysis conducted in the year 1973 and 1984 has shown that there was income inequality between sexes; the analysis further stated that "The income gaps between males and females are also large. The income gaps between Anglophones and Francophone tend to be much smaller than between class categories and gender groups in 1973, and more so in 1984. The greatest improvement in income disparities seems to come from less discriminatory pay structures and exploitation, not from human capital and individual characteristics". (Class, Gender and Ethnic Income Inequalities in 1973 and 1984: Findings from the Canadian National Surveys) Canadian Women in recent years were living in poverty, due to low income they received in the working places as a result of Gender Stratification. The result was that, not only the women in that nature suffered from the tragic, it's also included their families. While for that reason, the Canadian government and the United Nation put hand on deck to curtail poverty among women. The United Nation on its part stated that poverty will never come to end unless women are given opportunity to work and earn like their male counterpart. Another typical example that ought to be sighted as relating to the above subject describes how women were segregated in Canada, especially in the area of Ontario, where analysis made since 1999 shows that there was a disparity. There was a highest gap in earning between males and females, especially in the Pharmacy Industry. Investigation also testifies that women were earning less than their male counterpart in that sector because they are only remaining as employees. Meanwhile, since the primary focus of this essay is to make assessment on how gender stratification changed in Canadian working place in the last few decades, the remaining pages of set aside for this essay should focus on that aspect. The important point that ought to be discuss on this aspect initially, over the changing in Gender stratification in the past few decades, which include that some countries across the globe have changed to recognized the need for equality between males and females, which is in line with the International Convention that took place in the year 1979, which at the end of it, members that participated endorsed the compulsory application of social justice between men and women. During that convention, a bill was passed, which is tagged "international bill of rights for women", is the second most widely ratified human rights treaty in the world. Many countries have also enacted legislation and established organizational structures on a domestic level to promote gender equality". (Gender Equality in the Labor Market). The Canadian International Development Agency, (CIDA) has also played vital roles in recent years toward ensuring the Gender Equality in Canada, through its policy on gender equality. The body has vowed to make sure that this world appears to be good and enjoyable for all irrespective of gender differences. For the past decades, CIDA has been putting pressures toward putting women to participate fully in the development process of their different societies in Canada. "Recognizing that gender is an important social division marked by inequality, CIDA's policy was revised in 1995 to emphasize the importance of gender equity and women's empowerment. CIDA's use of a gender equity approach aimed to ensure fairness in the way women and men are treated and involved the adoption of special measures to tackle gender inequalities and to increase women's autonomy".(CIDA's Policy on Gender Equality). Moreover, the Canadian authority itself in the recent past decades has tightened its belt to wipe away the Inequality between all sexes. In the Canadian Constitution, a provision is made to adapt to the need for Gender Equality, which is named "Charter of Right and Freedom", in which prohibits the application of gender Stratification in all aspects of human endeavor. Additionally, Gender stratification has been putting ahead to bring its end in Canada, due to the fact that there were lots of International Human Right treaties, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Right, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Right, and many others. While in the last few decades, "Canada is also committed to international agreements such as the United Nations Declaration on Violence Against Women, and to the consensus reached at the various UN conferences such as the Cairo Conference on Population and Development, the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights, and most recently the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women, in Beijing". (CIDA's Policy on Gender Equality). All these treaties and pacts were signed by Canada for the purpose of wiping away all forms of discriminations against women in recent decades. On the final note of this essay, we should focus on the Federal Plan for Gender Equality, as another part of Canadian government effort in changing the Gender stratification in recent past decades. After the Beijing Conference that was held in 1995, there was much concern toward the gender issue in Canada, thus all Federal government department were given mandate to implement gender analysis, thus eight objectives were endorsed to curtail the phenomenon. These objectives include that; implementation of gender analysis through federal government department, enhancing the women activities and their well being, improving their physical and psychological well being, and reducing the societal violence, more especially against women and children's. Other objectives include promoting the gender equality in all the Canada cultural life, ensuring women participation in governance, promoting and given support to international gender equality, and advance gender equality for employees of federal department and agencies. Indeed, the Gender stratification in workplace in Canada has been reduced if not completely wiped away! Work Cited Definition of Gender on the Web M. Reza Nakhale (Class, Gender and Ethnic Income Inequalities in 1973 and 1984: Findings from the Canadian National Surveys) "Department of Sociology, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. http://rrp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/26/1/26 Evaluation and Data Development Strategic Policy (Gender Inequality in the Labor Market) CIDA's Policy on Gender Equality Read More