Based on the preliminary research I conducted, I have been able to identify two key topic areas that are of interest to me and these include: immigrant women attaining jobs in Ontario and violence experienced by women in Canada. In regard to immigrant women attaining jobs, there are significantly higher unemployment rates and lower wages that they are faced with, in comparison to other immigrant men and Canadian-born men and women. The debate circulating around this issue seeks to answer whether gender, immigrant class, age, ethnicity and sexuality all play a role in an immigrant woman’s ability to be employed (TIEDI, 2010, p.1). Some key questions that have arisen focus on workplace policies and programs that create further disparity within the gender gap, rather than aiding immigrant women who have differing needs in the labour market. Questions posed, seek to find the contributing factors to lower wages and what can be changed in the regulations to create equity (TIEDI, 2010, p.6). As well, a study conducted by Anucha et al. (2006) examines what are the outcomes of immigrant women participating in the economy and how this varies from other males, along with the social impacts of being employed (p.5).
Another topic of interest is the growing amount of violence experienced by women in Canada, specifically among minority women and the LGBTQ community. As noted by Faulkner (2006), homophobic sexist violence has been on the rise and the debate surrounding this issue is the lack of attention being paid to homosexual girls and women. The intersections of race/ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation all determine the type of crime that is perpetrated against the victims but has been ignored by researchers, reducing the complexity of ...
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...recarious, unstable job positions of cleaning attendants, maids or hotel workers (Liladrie, 2010, pp.64-65).
Another area of significant concern, as identified by Guida (2004), is the deskilling of qualified, educated immigrant women who are required to be re-certified under Ontario’s standards in order to find employment (p.142). Previously, when immigrant women entered Ontario they were not offered the opportunity to learn English because of discriminatory gendered policies. Husbands were seen as much more fit for the workforce and the wives as dependents, stripping them of the chance to learn English (Guida, 2004, p.143). Women who were once accountants, teachers or nurses in their home country are now forced to take up meager job positions because of inadequate language courses and a lack of childcare subsidies due to restricting policies (Guida, 2004, p.145).
Over several decades, Canadian women have greatly exceeded and made several advancement in earning women’s equality. Agnes MacPhail was a strong determined woman. At a young age, Macphail disliked housework and preferred helping her father with the farm livestock. She had longed for a life outside the farm work and hoped to attend school. However, Agnes’ family was in dire need for help to support the farm. She took action and never lost hope as she pleaded for two years for her parent's approval to go to school. With persistence and hope she gained their permission to start an education. Several women have shown phenomenal strength and conquered challenges to achieve equality. Women lived in a male-dominated society; however after 1914, Canadian
Developed countries have often pride themselves as role models on issues of social equality to developing countries; however, gender, ethnic, and class disparity is prevalent in ‘wealthy’ countries. More importantly, it is implicit in that citizens believe that social equality exists, but in actuality disadvantaged individuals and groups still face several obstacles in reaching such equality. This paper will specifically focus on gender inequality in Canada. Canada is a country that has deemed itself as a progressive society due to its multicultural and hospitable character in which legislati...
Systemic discrimination has been a part of Canada’s past. Women, racial and ethnic minorities as well as First Nations people have all faced discrimination in Canada. Policies such as, Charter of Rights and Freedoms, provincial and federal Human Rights Codes, as well has various employment equity programs have been placed in Canada’s constitution to fight and address discrimination issues. Despite these key documents placed for universal rights and freedoms Aboriginal and other minority populations in Canada continue to be discriminated against. Many believe there is no discrimination in Canada, and suggest any lack of success of these groups is a result of personal decisions and not systemic discrimination. While others feel that the legislation and equality policies have yet resulted in an equal society for all minorities. Racism is immersed in Canadian society; this is clearly shown by stories of racial profiling in law enforcement.
...ough group and individual models of deviant behaviour. The patriarchal pedagogy and structures that set the stage for permitting sexual assault to occur historically, still continue today, although in more subtle ways. Women are still seen as the property of men, and are protected as such. Men and women are still taught to occupy very different roles in today's world. Men are usually in power positions, especially of an economic nature, and women are seen as passive. Marxist-feminist and differential identification are two theories that can be used to effectively explicate the cycle of sexualized violence in Canadian society today. In order to deal with the occurrence of sexual assault in our society, we must examine its causes more deeply. We must understand the sociology of sexualized violence in order to effectively explicate its groups and individual dynamics.
Canada is one of the developed countries of the world to adapt to progress and embrace change but this does not limit the great nation to a perfect country. Problems are still eminent and need to be resolved. Over the course of previous decades, Women in Canada and the rest of the world, started to voice out their opinions. They demanded a complete change of the way the system negatively targeted and exploited women. These were brought on by the fact that female living in Canada, were forced to endure terrible conditions before the 1960s. Some of these issues were patriarchy, rape, abortion, childcare, and discrimination of women at work places and violence against women. These were all issues that were doing harm to women in the Canadian society but the most appalling of them all was violence against women.
Welsh et al. (2006) used data from the research focus groups of Canadian women to discuss the issue of sexual harassment among Canadian women and how the white Canadian women, who are mostly heterosexual, define sexual harassment and rape (objective) versus how the women of color define their experience of rape and sexual harassment in workplace (subjective). According to Welsh et al. (2006), he discussed how race, gender and citizenship are important factors in how Women of color with and without citizenship right define sexual harassment and rape. Sometimes as race and sometimes sees it as an experience they will pass through at some point or the other in their lives and most times they failed to report because of their legal statues, fear, pity, guilt, love, ignorance, lack of education. He also discussed how they fail to pay attention to the interlocking aspect of race and citizenship and how the legal system failed to give as much attention to the few reported case of rape by women of color because of their passed sexual history. While on the other hand, the white Canadian Woman defines her experience of rape and harassment not as a race but as what the author failed to discuss. The white Canadian woman knows when the boundary is crossed and most times do not contemplate to express her legal rights.
It has been argued that gender mainstreaming is a potent approach that can transform how public policies are made by challenging existing policy paradigms and setting new policy priorities (Woodward, 2008). However, there has been a lack of evidence to support that gender mainstreaming exist in Canada. Therefore, whether Canada’s gender equality approach is gender mainstreaming or not is open for discussion. This discussion paper examines this issue by exploring the gender equality approaches adopted by Government of Canada. The challenges of implementing gender mainstreaming are highlighted, and finally recommendations are made.
Hankivsky, O., Varcoe, C., & Morrow, M. H. (2007). Women's health in Canada: Critical perspectives on theory and policy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
The theoretical perspective in analyzing underlying social problems behind missing women in Canada can be through the understanding of conflict theory. Conflict theory was derived from the works of Karl Marx, which focuses on the primary themes of power, oppression, and exclusion (Unit 1, Justice Studies). An example of this is the hamrmful treatment of Aboriginal peoples in Canada after centuries of colonialism and the...
If Ontario is able to get an equal pay law that essentially benefits women than America should consider looking into their law. With the amount of schooling both men and women are required to go through in order to obtain a certain job, there should be some type of equal wage involved. In England, there is a similar situation going on involving the wage gap. Where several women believe that they are not getting the fair amount of income when it comes to the amount of time and effort they put into the job. Amanda Stratton, an entrepreneur and co-founder of Hacker Studios, believes that individuals should find solutions from an evidence-based perspective in order end wage discrimination (“Women’s”). By doing this, it will help with the common usage of basis towards males and females on whether they deserve to get paid more than one another.
New immigrants entering Canada are selected using a points system designed to hand-pick skilled, educated professionals. However, they face a difficult task attempting to integrate into the Canadian labour market. A common trend amongst studies is the detrimental role foreign-earned credentials and experience play during the hiring process. Their human-cultural capital is often devalued, limiting both opportunities for employment, as well as upward mobility. Intersectionality further complicates the issue, demonstrating how some immigrants experience greater oppression than others. This proposal will address the experiences of female migrants with foreign-earned credentials as they attempt to integrate themselves into the Canadian labour market. In particular, I will be focusing on whether their accrued human-cultural capital translates into job opportunities in their previous field of work.
One of the most important human rights issues facing Canadians today is the high rate of sexual assault against women. Sexual assault against women acts as a barrier to gender equality and stands in the way of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Sexual assault can be any unwanted physical contact or menacing of a sexual nature or in a sexual situation, done intentionally or recklessly without permission. It includes attempts and threats of unwanted sexual contact. Sexual assault can cover actions range from kissing or sexual touching to sexual act. Sexual assault is a criminal offense even though the victim does not have any physical injuries. Sexual assault in Canada is gendered and socially-patterned. Women are more likely to experience
Statistics like these outlines the severity and seriousness of the domestic epidemic in Canada. This is an epidemic with dramatic and negative effects not only affecting individuals, but communities as a whole, it is a crime that knows no economic, racial, ethnic or religious limits. “At some point in their lives, more than forty percent of women will experience violence, and in most cases this violence is in the hands of a man.” Although research may suggest that these statistics may be under-reported as many of these assaults go unrecorded, this is largely due to society’s refusal to recognize such violence as an infringement on women’s human rights. The violence Canada has experienced against women can be attributed to the result of a power structure that exist in society. While there has been a widespread recognition of this type of violence, it remains the case, that there are many areas of society where women are still subjected to this type of violence and in some way are seen as responsible for the man’s behaviour.
The institutionalized discrimination of women in the work place is nothing new or unheard of. The brunt of it has happened fairly recently as women began to enter the labor market in force less than a century ago. The affect of this discrimination has had long lasting, generation spanning affects, but as time has passed and feminism spread, the gender-gap has slowly begun to shrink.
Aswad, Barbara. “Attitudes of Immigrant Women and Men in the Dearborn Area Toward Women’s Employment and Welfare.” Muslim Communities in North America. Ed. Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and Jane Idleman Smith. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1994. 501-519.