Tedx Talk Summary

In her Tedx Talk, "How Studying Privilege Systems Can Strengthen Compassion", Peggy McIntosh (2012) discusses the different ways in which undue hardships are placed on certain groups and individuals in society. She outlined two examples, one in which she was on the receiving end of prejudice and one in which she exhibited prejudice. The commonality between both examples was that the groups exhibiting prejudice were not doing so out of malice; they had simply been systematically conditioned to think this way through social systems (McIntosh, 2012). Historically, women have been oppressed around the world for thousands of years and over this period of time systems, such as the ones outlined by McIntosh, have been implemented within our society, effectively …show more content…
Today in Ontario, employers who have a prejudice towards women have no incentive to hire them as they would have to pay them the same as male counterparts which are preferred by them. This would result in sexist employers repeatedly hiring men over women, increasing unemployment within the discriminated group. However in a free market, women are able to offer their labour for any value they see fit, increasing their employability. In this scenario, the sexist employer must pay a price in order to exercise his prejudice. If a man and a woman have identical education and skills, yet the woman is willing to work for $10,000 less, the employer is now faced with a decision whether satisfying his prejudice is worth that amount to him. As illustrated by this example it is evident that an equal work-equal pay policy interferes with the free market and results in both employers and the discriminated groups being worse off, with employers having higher salary costs and unemployment within women increasing (Friedman,