Women In Canada

In Canada Women are still not considered equal to men in the work place, this can be seen through unequal pay, disparity between genders in high-income occupations and the prevalence of sexual harassment in the workplace. The private sector is especially unequal in all of these respects while the public sector still maintains a significant inequality in pay especially. It is also true that women are not as involved in Unions in the private sector, and still under equal participation in the public sector. Women in the workforce have always been more vulnerable to unequal treatment, and as a woman I feel that it is important to recognize what has shaped the current female workforce, and to understand that we still have a long way to go in the …show more content…
There was also a lot of concern about gender based harassment and discrimination. The Alberta Human rights Commission at this time claimed that amount the over 200 complaints that they had received in 1980, 48% of them were regarding harassment and discrimination based on gender . The end of the strike saw the Union granted 17 weeks of maternity leave at 93% of usual pay …show more content…
Many of the issues fought for in previous female-driven strikes are still problems in todays workforce. There is however evidence that current Union membership is directly related to better gender equality in pay. Statistics Canada’s 2003 Labour survey stated that women in Unions in the private sector were paid 90% of what men made, while women who were not members of Unions made only 70% of what their male counterparts made . Disparity in union strength is often tied to gender disparity. Typically Unions are stronger in the Private sector with men then with women, who are being paid significantly less overall then men doing the same job . Through analysis of these statistics it becomes clear that gender equality is tied to union strength in Canada. While pay is still very much an issue within Canadian society, women now enjoy many benefits that were not previously accessible to them. Paid Maternity leave is now mandated by the government and involves a minimum of 17 weeks of paid maternity leave. This number for the minimum length of maternity leave can be directly traced to the postal strike of 1981 and it is therefore reasonable to suggest that one of the reasons that we in Canada now have maternity rights is because of the strength of the Unions in the early