The Importance Of Women's Equality In Canada

Women’s equality is an issue that has been around for awhile. While women have been given many rights to increase equality, including the right to vote and go to college, the problem hasn’t completely vanished. One area that still sees this is in sports. Women’s sports do not draw nearly as many fans and are not covered in the media as much as men’s sports, pay differences between male and female athletes are large, and female athletes have to wait longer to start their professional career than men, which risks their professional career before it even starts.

Every woman has the right to moral, legal and political choice. As we look to the past, women fought for the right to be treated the same as men and fundamentally to have the same rights as men. Prior to the turn of the century, women had little to no rights. World War I and II gave way to change, allowing women to work and eventually allowing them to vote. The feminist movement has made drastic progress since the war. Today women are seen as equal and have the right not only to vote, but to be educated. In 1977 the Canadian Human Rights Act ensured that women could no longer be discriminated based on their sex, race, religion or sexuality. The act specified that there must be “equal pay for

This essay will argue why Canada should take a substantive approach to women’s representation in parliament. Having an adequate representation of women in parliament would be a huge turning point for women and allow their voices to be heard. Each woman holds a different view, just like men do. Each gender and person will bring their own view forth and allow for a diverse House. The issue is that women are not getting adequate representation, and therefore are not being able to represent their views. Men have a much larger congregation than women, therefore overpowering the views/ideologies of them. In Canada, everyone strives for equality, and the best place to start is to take a substantive approach to women’s representation in parliament.

At the end of the American Revolution the United States became known for its new-found freedom and the equality it provided among its people. It gave hopes for a better world and opened many opportunities for most Americans, excluding a certain group of people "women". Although, the terms "republican motherhood, (1770's)" and "cult of domesticity, (start of the Civil War) which was the belief that women, by virtue of their sex, should stay home as the moral guardians of family life" (Goldfield, et al. p. 265) had been existent to many American women since the end of the Revolutionary War, it did not provide with equal rights to all. The lower-class and colored women were not included in such goals due to the lack of economic and social repression and came with a limit to the middle and upper-class women.

Canadian workplaces today seem to be a fairly diverse place, with a blend of many religions, ethnicities, and genders present. However, although people preach affirmative action and melting pots in current times, many inequality and power issues still abound. One strikingly noticeable example is gender discrimination. Women in the workforce face many challenges like smaller wages, harassment, male privilege in hiring or promotions, and lack of support when pregnant or raising children. One half of the planet is women, and it can be assumed the same for Canada, but they still face judgment at work because they lack the authority to dispute against big corporations or even their male supervisor. It cannot be argued that

Equality means the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunities. Sadly not everyone achieved equality. Women didn’t get the right to vote until 1920. In 1965 African Americans got the right to vote. Both groups had a lot of struggle to gain their rights.

A woman within three days of arriving from China in 2005 joined a husband she barely knew, the woman was constantly being punched and suffocated by him. She knew no one in Canada and was unable to speak a word of English. The 36-year-old woman used to scream loudly to attract attention during the beatings. After being put through all that, her husband called the Toronto police and accused his wife of assaulting him. In early March 2005, two officers entered their apartment, and arrested her for assault. She spent days in jails and courtrooms, unable to give her side of the story because she was not provided an interpreter.

After the French Revolution, the feminist movements have raised against domination of men and patriarchal society in Europe. There is no equality for women in the common world. Many Canadian women come out of their homes to work as an effect of First and Second World War. During the Second Wave Feminist Movement in 1970s, feminist writing in Canada starts to emerge and plays an active role in attacking the patriarchal society. Women have started raising their voice against domestic violence and for their rights. Canadian women also have fought for peace in the country and environmental issues. Aparna Basu states

The Canadian women were a huge influence to developing ice hockey for women and are the reason for the growth of the sport in other countries. One individual that does redefine the sport of ice hockey is Manon Rheaume who fought the barriers of integration. Manon’s efforts and determination to challenge her abilities was one of the biggest developments in women’s hockey. No only was Manon making a statement during her career but she was bringing attention to women’s ice hockey. Through Manon’s task oriented goals of challenging her abilities she became a part of the men’s team. She proved not only that she was good enough to play at a high level but also that women are highly capable to compete with the men through the act of integration of sexes.

Health, a basic human rights an important factor for development. Though Women is most societies live longer than men because of biological and behavioural factors (WHO, 2009 p-xi) but WHO is worried that in some societies this factors are subdued by gender base discrimination 2009 report of WHO named “Women and Health stressed that the health needs of women and girls are different from men and are the needs are met far from the expected ones.

Through the Contemporary Women’s Issues in Canada course, various topics related to gender inequality were discussed. Due to a long history, of sexism and misogyny in many aspects of Canadian society, outdated behaviours and thoughts have prevailed in many aspects of society. Three main topics that are central to achieving gender equality are gendered violence, gender roles and socialization, and child care.

Gender inequality has been a long part of Canada’s history with men being the dominant decision makers. Women have had to fight long hard battles and overcome numerous obstacles to prove themselves and demonstrate that they are equal to men and not inferior. Over the course of a century women have achieved suffrage and have become increasingly visible in the political and economic sectors. Despite all the achievements women have made barriers remain in effect leaving women at a social, economic and political disadvantage even in the twenty-first century. The primary obstacles in achieving gender equality are the noticeable absence of women in authoritative economic and political positions, unfair social stereotypes that are still

Canada is regarded as one of the wealthiest industrialized countries in the world. This indication is contrary to the well-being reality affecting Canadians. Despite being part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation Development (OECD), Canada has lagged behind her otherwise wealthy counterparts in the industrialized countries being position 19 out of 22 nations (Breznitz and Zysman, 2013). This has been attributed to the precarious levels of poverty in a majority of Canadian households. The country has not recognized any official poverty measurement although other universal measures such as LICO is used for measuring relative poverty, a more determinable measure of poverty for wealthy countries.

A few years ago, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, “People ask me sometimes, when — when do you think it will it be enough? When will there be enough women on the court? And my answer is when there are nine.” Justice Ginsburg aims for a future where women can achieve the same monopoly on the Supreme Court that men held for nearly two hundred years; she is optimistic that someday, nine women will be able to reach the height of the American judicial system. The path to an all-female Supreme Court is quite an unlikely one, but a strong and diverse court with women and people of color could be created and would greatly benefit many marginalized groups in the United States.

Our society has the belief that women have always been portrayed as weak, emotional, and powerless. Throughout this article by Tavia Grant, it shows how women do not get the same opportunities men receive. Statistically shown, women are still earning less money than men regardless to the amount of education they possess (Grant). Women are accepted to hold obligations regarding family tasks while the men do the providing in the family. The article shows the disadvantages women have in Canada compared to men, however, it also shows gender inequality and gender discrimination.