Immigrant and Black Women Status in Workplace - Report Example

Immigrant and black women status in workplace In early 1900s and decades before many immigrants came to Canada to offset the demand for workforce in developing Canadian economy. Economic development was principal in enabling Canada to settle early. Canadian needed immigrants to provide cheap labor, to support economic growth, and to occupy the Canadian West to prevent American invasion. After Industrial Revolution, there was greater need for immigrants to work in the industries. This ushered many immigrants, both men and women, to Canada. Canada enacted flexible policies to allow a considerable number of immigrants to enter the country. The massive immigration brought in people with diversified cultures and ethnic backgrounds. The ethnic factions extended to the workplace. The immigrants and black women suffered the brunt of ethnic divisions in the labor force in Canada. Before industrial revolution, gender segregation was very high and it was women’s role to perform household chores only1. The black women did not get enough attention to secure jobs because the popular patriarchal ideologies in the workplace. Most of the work was a reserve for the masculine gender. However, things took a positive turn for women with advent of Industrial Revolution. The industries required varied skills in their operations. This paper seeks to analyze the status of immigrant and black women’s status in the workplace and their developments after industrialization in Canada. First, the report will endeavor to reveal the experiences that brought about the women’s desire to challenge their status in the workplace. Second, it will point out the process of their development after industrialization. Lastly, the paper will give its conclusion on black women’s developments in Canada2. Diverse cultural, legal, demographic, and ethno-racial influences shaped the history of women in the Canadian labor force. Like men, women in the industrial Canada contributed to their household and community economies through both paid and unpaid labor. However, cultural beliefs, social practices, and laws limited the material rewards. These practices subordinated women to men. The black married women could not sign labor contracts, own property or even claim their wages. The women who worked in the same type of work as their male counterparts earned lower wages than men did. The black women participated in heavy field labor that the Canadian natives could not work in. The immigrants faced a lot of discrimination and social prejudice from the employers’ suppressive policies. This made the employment status of the immigrant and black women uncertain3. During the late 1700s and early 1800s, the Industrial Revolution profoundly changed the conditions under which immigrant and black women worked. Industrial Revolution shifted the workplace away from farms, where men and women lived, to factories, mines, and other spaces away from home. This shift created two different spheres. These comprised of a domestic and a separate working sphere away from the home. Compelling was the strategy that Canadians used to get the Black women to enter the workplace mostly in the textile industries4. It was burdening to women because they served as homemakers and caregivers on top of working in the textile industries. In the middle of the 1800s, the number of women declined in the workplace. The wages of the industrial workers rose making the jobs desirable for men. Canada passed the laws restricting the number of workers for the black women and the number of lower-class working-women fell. A cult of domesticity, stressing that women place was in the home and men in the workplace dominated the Canadian culture. This was especially among the middle and upper class. This catapulted formation of strong and vigorous women’s movements that agitated for suffrage, equality to work, equal pay, temperance, and other issues. The women formed most prominent organizations such as National Council of women in Canada, Women Christian Temperance Union, and the Federation nationale Saint-Jean-Baptiste. The organizations championed for equality in workplace for immigrant and black women5. These organizations faced challenges from opposing male domineered unions that fought to increase the increase the differential in women’s wages; rather than supporting the woman worker’s rights, they strove to preserve male privilege in the workplace. There was blame from the white workers that the immigrant women brought about the low payments in the labor force. Despite the counter opposition, the women organizations continued with their campaigns to demand for wage rise in women. In addition, the organization advocated for exclusion of women from dangerous foundry work6. In order to integrate in the workforce, immigrant women used other strategies. These included obtaining Canadian qualification, whether Canadian university degrees or certificates of degrees acquired elsewhere. Obtaining Canadian experience through both voluntary work and working for multicultural organizations was a strategy the women employed. Moreover, making enormous efforts and personal sacrifices and organizing movements for social changed worked positively7. In late 1960s, the women immigrants in Canada started new women’s movements. The movements demanded equality and pointed out that they could not achieve it through legal, institutional, and political modifications. The movements drew many inspirations from feminists such as Gloria Steinem, Shulamith Firestone, Germaine Greer, and Kate Millett. The feminist held strongly that the workplace was a male domination and patriarchal ideologies8. Late 1960s, the women movements realized that the significance of togetherness. In the light of this discovery, the black women and immigrants from Vancouver to Halifax started to form groups that championed for equality in work place. This lessened the male chauvinism that held the women place the house. The consequences of the efforts of women movements were the rising of the status of women in the workplace. Men started to compete with immigrant women for factory jobs. Men never welcomed the move. More black women joined the labor market and the movements. The movements and union become strong with more influx of immigrant women. The women movements devised a variety of strategic approaches to achieve total women emancipation and equality. The mandate of the movement was to eradicate male union and barriers in the labor markets. These were the principal hindrances that prevented the immigrant women from achieving equality in the workplace. The movement and women in the labor market established fundamental issues for women, which they identified as the key constituent in the labor struggles9. Women gained recognition in the workplace and this led to improvement of wages and working conditions. Pensions and medical cover came into being for immigrant black women. To demonstrate acceptance of black women in the workforce, the Canadians brought women to the labor force during the First World War. Creation of new jobs and the entry men’s into the Armed forces to war opened employment chances to the immigrant women. The immigrant women occupied the familiar positions such as secretaries, clerks, and typists. In addition, other women worked in munitions factories in Ontario and Montreal. Although the wages never equaled to that of men, the immigrant got 50-80 % of what was the men’s pay. Some immigrants lost their job after the First World War. However, they re-established themselves because majority had had gained skills in occupational jobs such as social work, physiotherapy, clerical, and library work. The number of black women employed in the domestic service fell drastically in 1920s. Those who worked in the domestic sector got flexible time off, and less supervised. In addition, the employers accorded the house workers some dignity and privacy. In 1921, the domestic workers represented 18 % of the employed women. This was a significant decrease from 41 % in 1891. Recruitment of black women increased in1942, just before Canada entered in the Second World War10. The single women got the first priority and later the married women with children. In 1945, 33.2 % of black immigrants were in employment. Many women entered the Armed Forces in Canada. In 1941-1951, more black women moved to clerical jobs. This was a shift in occupations from male to female dominance. Black women not only worked in the textile industries but also in other fields. These comprised of medicine and education. In 1952, Ontario made a milestone in enacting equal pay for equal work legislation. Immigrant women could speak with in full voice in the workplace. In 1955, Canada removed restriction of employment for married immigrant women. The employers reviewed their policies that constrained the rights of women at work. The immigrant black women earned almost the same amount as the male workers. The black women could pursue their studies in the post-industrialized Canada11. This increased their skills enabling them to compete with the men for the different jobs in all sectors of Canadian economy. The immigrant women and the women movement joined hands to fight for recognition of education and skills earned outside Canada. Conclusion The immigrant black women took a long time to establish their status in the work places. They faced many obstacles on the way to realization of equality in the labor force. The male chauvinism and patriarchal ideologies dominated the working places during industrialization. After industrialization in Canada, low payment and mistreatment characterized the working conditions in the industries. The black women overworked in the industries and back in their homes. The unmarried women had restriction to sign contracts with their employers. The single black women had the permission to enter into a binding agreement with the employers. However, the wages were dismal. The black women started to form movement that championed for their recognition in the workplace12. The women movement delivered because there was flexibility in the work place. Women secured the jobs considered a male preserve. However, the pay was not the same as for the men. Nonetheless, it was a significant improvement in the women’s wages. This was a positive development to the immigrant black women towards attaining fairness and equality. The challenges women faced enabled them to devise strategies to fight directly or indirectly the gender bias in the workplace. To gain recognition in the skilled labor market, the black women acquired training in the Canadian soil. The black women continue to advocate for equality in the workplace. This is despite the perceived barriers in their struggle for egalitarianism. References CBC, et al, Canada: A Peoples History, Volume 1, (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2002), pp. 217-220. Gail Brandt, Canadian Women: A History, (Scarborough: Nelson Education Limited, 2010), pp. 136 -217 Harvey Krahn, et al, Work, Industry, and Canadian Society, (New York: Cengage Learning, 2010), pp. 174-179. Joan Sangster, Transforming Labour: Women and Work in Post-War Canada, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010), pp. 23-24. Louise Chappel, Gendering Government: Feminist Engagement With the State in Australia and Canada, (Vancover: UBC Press, 2003), pp. 20-23 William Duiker and Jackson Spielvogel, World History, Volumes 1-2, (New York: Cengage Learning, 2008), pp. 593-600. Read More