At a time where over 9 million women are working in the labour force1, over sixty-one percent of university graduates are women, and extraordinary career advances have been made2, there is still occupational segregation plaguing Canada. Occupational segregation is based mainly on gender bias caused by stereotypes, biological differences as well as the social differences between men and women. Each woman hired in the labour market brings their own set of unique skills and motivation; the same as any man. However, the societal bias tends to prohibit women from obtaining certain jobs and puts them at a disadvantage economically; this disadvantage is the wage gap that seems to persist in different fields dominated either by males or females no
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This could all lead to a more prosperous Canada, raising the gross domestic product (GDP), increasing the well-being of women, and possibly creating a more productive country. In order to break down occupational segregation, women need to achieve gender equality in their education starting in high school and throughout post-secondary education in the future. This should be a goal in Canada- to empower female youth and to show them the different job paths they could follow that are typically male-dominated in today’s society. This would not only benefit women through positive reinforcement of their skills, but would benefit society as well since we would all benefit from the possible futures they will have. We would need to make sure that highly skilled women do not get trapped into low skill, low pay work due to socially constructed ideas, caregiving responsibilities and inflexible jobs. To do this, there may be multiple actions that should be taken such as evaluating occupations and their pay levels in order to test the differences between male and female dominated jobs that are similar in skills, responsibility, and conditions and see if there is discrimination in pay5; then it would be necessary to increase the wages of the female dominated jobs. Another idea would be to increase the wages paid in female-dominated jobs above minimum wage. This would benefit women and the economy as a whole seeing as how it could improve productivity7 and competitiveness, and boost well-being. Given the fact that women are the primary supporters to their children, it can create
This could all lead to a more prosperous Canada, raising the gross domestic product (GDP), increasing the well-being of women, and possibly creating a more productive country. In order to break down occupational segregation, women need to achieve gender equality in their education starting in high school and throughout post-secondary education in the future. This should be a goal in Canada- to empower female youth and to show them the different job paths they could follow that are typically male-dominated in today’s society. This would not only benefit women through positive reinforcement of their skills, but would benefit society as well since we would all benefit from the possible futures they will have. We would need to make sure that highly skilled women do not get trapped into low skill, low pay work due to socially constructed ideas, caregiving responsibilities and inflexible jobs. To do this, there may be multiple actions that should be taken such as evaluating occupations and their pay levels in order to test the differences between male and female dominated jobs that are similar in skills, responsibility, and conditions and see if there is discrimination in pay5; then it would be necessary to increase the wages of the female dominated jobs. Another idea would be to increase the wages paid in female-dominated jobs above minimum wage. This would benefit women and the economy as a whole seeing as how it could improve productivity7 and competitiveness, and boost well-being. Given the fact that women are the primary supporters to their children, it can create