Gender Inequality In The Workforce In Canadian Society - Research Paper Example

GENDER INEQUALITY IN THE WORKFORCE IN CANADIAN SOCIETY Gender inequality in the workforce in Canadian society Introduction Gender inequality has been prevalent for a very long time. In scenarios when gender inequality is prevalent women are mostly the victims. Over the past few decades there have been campaigns that were aimed at reducing the gap between treatment of people of the male gender and those of the female gender. It will be unfair to say that these initiatives have been unsuccessful. However, the complete eradication of unequal treatment of women has not been successful. The lack of success in eradicating gender inequality is something that has been experienced globally. Canada to be specific is also affected by unequal treatment of women. Looking at the Canadian society someone will easily notice that unequal treatment of women is still prevalent. The gender inequality in Canada is most prevalent in the work places. This paper aims at discussing the reasons as to why women are still being treated unequally in the workforce in Canadian society. Literature review In the development of this report the data and information used were mostly sought from reviewing literature. A good number of the literature materials that were reviewed in this case were those that show gender inequalities that prevalent in the Canadian workforce. The choice of this topic was mainly influenced by the fact that there has been many initiatives taken towards making sure that gender inequality in the Canadian workforce is curbed yet there were still prevalent signs of gender inequality in the Canadian workforce. The literature materials that were reviewed in this case include A Report Card on Women and Poverty by Monica Townson and other literature materials relating to this topic. Road map This paper is mainly going to discuss the reasons as to why gender inequality is still prevalent in the Canadian workforce. The discussion will give various indicators of gender inequality in the Canadian workforce. Under each indicator the paper is going to discuss the most probable reasons as to why the indicators are still common in the Canadian workforce. The discussion is also going to show some the factors that are believed to be the highest contributors of gender inequality in the Canadian workforce. Discussion The most common indicator of gender inequality in in the workforce in Canadian society is labor compensation. When a research was carried out in Canada to discover the payment that women were given in comparison to their male counterparts with the same amount of experience. It was discovered that their salaries were at least 15% less than what their malecounterparts of the same work level earn. This is something that is believed to be very common with a good number of employers in Canada. One thing that is believed to be leading to the inequality in the payment of human labour in Canada is the fact that women are not aware of the fact that they are being paid less in comparison with their male counterparts of the same job level. When people are employed the payment terms are always exclusive and the details are always held secretly by themselves and the company. Some organizations even have policies that make it illegal for employees to discuss wages with each other.The secrecy of the payment terms always makes it harder for women to realize that they are being paid less in comparison to their male counterparts (Sharma & Sharma, 2012). When someone is not aware of an injustice they are being subjected to it will be hard or even impossible for such an individual to push for their justice to be served. With regard to such a reason women in the Canadian workforce continue undertaking their professional duties without placing any complains about the payments that are being given to them. In some of the few circumstances when women might be able to know that they are being paid less because of the fact that they are of the female gender mostly never do anything about it. This is because most would be halted by the fear of being victimized. Some might not necessarily be halted by their fear of victimization but the fear that there is nothing that will come from such endeavor. As a result of their silence the other women who are not aware of the existence of such an injustice continue working with such an injustice ignorantly (Fuller &Vosko, 2008). If the few who have had the privilege of knowing this truth would come up and fight against it then even those who are not aware will be able to know that they have being treated unequally by their employers. With such knowledge the whole population of women workers in Canada will be able to advocate for their own equality. Given the population of women workers in Canada, collective advocating for their rights will make it easier for them to get positive results. Another indicator of gender inequality in the Canadian workforce is discrimination during hiring. Despite the fact that the population of the female gender is slightly more than the male gender in Canada, men still find it easier to get jobs as compared to women. In Canada men find it easier to get employed as compared to women. Men make the majority of the participant in the Canadian workforce despite the fact that the women outnumber them (Alksnis, Desmarais & Curtis, 2008). Most employers in Canada assert that they would prefer employing male workers as compared to the female ones. This has continued happening despite the various initiatives that have been put in place in order to make sure that discriminatory hiring is curbed in Canada. The initiatives have only been able to reduce the rate at which gender discrimination takes place but has not been able to completely eradicate gender discrimination in the hiring processes in Canadian workforce. One of the reasons as to why there is still unequal treatment of women during the employment process is the fact that there is still male dominance in the Canadian workforce. Most of the people and even women have grown up seeing the male gender dominate the workforce. As a result people never see anything amiss when they see that men are getting employment chances easily as compared to how women get them (Plouffe, L. A. (2003). Women in Canada are further blinded by the progress that the fight against gender discrimination at work places in the country has made in the last few decades. Some imagine that this success is enough. As a result there has been laxity in the fight against gender discrimination in employment process. Even women themselves seem to be comfortable with the share that they have in the country’s total employment opportunities. Gender discrimination can also be seen in promotion at the organizations in Canada. In situations where two employees, one being male and the other one female give equal contributions to an organization, the male employee will likely get promoted while the female one remain in the same job level. Annually the numbers of men that get promoted to advanced job level are far more as compared to the women who get promoted (England, 2005). It has also been discovered that women usually have to fight harder in order to earn any promotion at their work places. Even when they are promoted they are always over scrutinized and expected to do allot just to prove that they truly deserved the promotions that they have been accorded. There have also been cases where women are subjected to gender based harassment at their work places. This is in most cases encouraged by the absence of policies that will effectively make sure that women are not harassed in whatsoever way by their male counterparts. This is further encouraged by the general male dominance in the society. There are organizations with rules touching on things such as dressing code that are believed to be discriminatory on women. Gender discrimination in some professions is also believed to be a result of the government’s sexiest policies (Townson, 2005). A good example will be in the military where men are always treated as superior to women. This can explain male dominance of the Canadian military. Another thing that can be said to contribute to gender discrimination in the Canadian workforce is the different ways in which the society views the contribution of men and women in their various work places. For instance, if a man stays out working late it is always seen as a positive thing and mostly referred to as putting extra effort towards economic responsibilities. On the other hand if a woman does the same they are in most cases accused of neglecting their family responsibilities. Conclusion It is clearly evident that full gender equality in the workforce has not yet been attained in Canada. As explained through this there are a number of things that can be said to be leading to this inequality. However, it cannot be denied that gender inequality in the Canadian workforce have highly reduced over the past decade. The improvement has been much but there are still things that can be done on the same issues. One of the things that can be done on the same issue is making sure that women in Canada are aware of the fact that they have equal rights as their male counterparts and advising them on the most appropriate ways through which they can make sure that they are accorded their rights whenever they realize that they are being discriminated because of their gender. The government can also make sure that there are employment policies that will make sure that nobody is treated unfairly because of their gender. For, instance they should put in place a policy require employers to make sure that a certain percentage of their employees are women (Busse & Spielmann, 2006). By this they will be forcing employers to employ a certain number of women. The same policy should also apply to the managerial posts which will mean that a certain percentage of the posts are held by women. Through the use of the above mentioned interventions there is likely to be a decrease in gender discrimination in the Canadian workforce in a rate that has never been experienced before. References Alksnis, C., Desmarais, S., & Curtis, J. (2008). Workforce Segregation and the Gender Wage Gap: Is “Womens” Work Valued as Highly as “Mens”? 1. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 38(6), 1416-1441. Busse, M., &Spielmann, C. (2006).Gender Inequality and Trade*.Review of International Economics, 14(3), 362-379. England, P. (2005). Gender inequality in labor markets: The role of motherhood and segregation. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 12(2), 264-288. Fuller, S., &Vosko, L. F. (2008). Temporary employment and social inequality in Canada: Exploring intersections of gender, race and immigration status. Social Indicators Research, 88(1), 31-50. Plouffe, L. A. (2003). Addressing social and gender inequalities in health among seniors in Canada.Cadernos de SaúdePública, 19(3), 855-860. Sharma, S., & Sharma, M. (2012). Gender equality in the workplace: the perceptive reality. Social Sciences Directory, 1(1). Townson, P. (2005). A Report Card on Women and Poverty.The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Read More