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Introduction
Women from all walks of life have contributed a lot in making a difference to the present and past life through their struggles for equality. Women in Canada have faced a lot of discrimination not only in terms of gender but also in terms of race, age ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation. Men have always dominated the high managerial positions and also they have high numbers in terms of holding power. They have better job security, more benefits and also very respectable titles compared to women. The working conditions in most places are not conducive for the promotion of women to the top management positions. There is an extreme importance of involving women in the issues related to all policies and programs to ensure that the decision making process is representative of both women and men.
Main body
In the history of Canadian women in the 19th and 20th century were subject to various forms of discrimination compared to men. Women had no right to vote and there they spent a lot of considerable time participating in organizations that were devoted in developing education, fighting for the rights and supporting churches. They were not allowed to own property. They also had no right to their own money which was controlled by their husbands. Women were not in a position to attain high levels of education as men and they were faced with a lot of ridicule when seeking education for example Clara Brett martin face a lot of challenges when she became the first woman to enroll into a law school. She faced challenges from her schoolmates, the professors and also the media. Women were also subject to abduction as long as hey had attained the age of 16. This only changed in 1910 when the criminal code made it illegal to abduct women. The women also worked for long hours yet their pay did not rise beyond that of men. The women came a long way in obtaining their rights to vote, the maternity leaves and also reduced working hours. Giving them the right to vote made women become more vigorous in the affairs of the state. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy. It recognizes the queen as the head of state. Women also fought for the rights to divorce men on equal grounds as men would divorce women. The national council of women in Canada has come a long way in assisting women attain their rights. In the 18th century they fought for the female prisoners, the female factory workers and also the female immigrants. The council has also helped the women get better health facilities such as safe water, pasteurized milk and also medical clinics.
In the 19th century the council helped the women form a lot Canadian institutions that were to help women achieve their goals. The council has supported women to be appointed to the senator positions in the government and also in the judicial system. In the 21st century women have fought their way into having a good representation in the legal system. They have fought for their rights into having their rights included in the charter as section 28 which states that the rights and freedoms referred into it are guaranteed equally to male and female persons. The section 15 and 28 of the Canadian charter of rights and freedoms now gives a clear foundation for the development of policies that support gender equality. It is still unfortunate for the women since the charter is only limited to the persons who have the time, money and resources. This gives the consequences of many women not finding the required justice just because they do not have the required resources. In 1981, Canada recognized the United Nations Convention on eradicating all forms of discrimination against women. The convention insisted on the women’s human rights by enabling them access equal opportunities in politics, public life, health, education and also in employment. Women have also been recognized as equal players in the economic world. They have attained better working status and independence. Statistics indicate a woman earns about 73 cents for every dollar that is earned by a man.
The women are still earning less than men just like women in other countries face discrimination in terms of payment equality. The gap between the women’s earnings and men earnings is still very large.
In the government positions, statistics still indicate that men are still dominating most positions in the federal government. Men occupy more than two third of the executive in the civil service while women are being over represented in the administrative support category.
The women in Canada have continually played a very limited role in the public life. There is still few women representation in the parliament. Women have less than 15% representation in the parliament. It has been emphasized that it is extremely important to involve women in the government and also in the business world. This is because it has been proven that women involvement in such issues has resulted to reduce corruption and thus improving the environment for business and investment. Women have been praised of their capability to build relation-ships that enable dialogue and easy resolving of conflicts. Women have also developed special skills that help them to focus on creative thinking. Their flexibility has been recommended in the management positions since this would allow better responsiveness between them and the employees. In today’s world women who did not have power to speak now have the freedom to express them-selves.
Women still face challenges in the approach to the political world due to lack of training and skills of how the political system works. Lack of proper skills has led to the difficulty in understanding he rules of the legislature that are necessarily in the performance of parliamentary duties. Women are not yet fully economically empowered to enable them to raise funds that would help them get into the business world.
In an approach to address the women’s issues in Canada, it has been suggested that the government should adopt quotas like most of the Scandinavian countries.
Quotas in this case would place the burden of recruitment on the persons who are taking control of the recruitment process. It would bring equality since the system would ensure that women get at least the few minority positions. Quotas recognize equality in that it emphasizes on the removal of barriers that women face in bid to attain equality of opportunity. The quotas would also help in improving the democratic situations of the political system in Canada. This is because 50% of the Canadian population is comprised of women yet the current political system in which the nominations are made are controlled by the political parties which are dominated by men. This makes it very difficult for women to be nominated and to be elected to the parliament. The existing percentage of women in the legislature seems to be dormant as the 20% since this has not changed over time. The success of women in Canada in fighting for gender equality is mainly based on the commitment of the government of Canada to put in place gender-based analysis in a cross-sectional and systematic approach. In 1995, Canada’s federal plan for gender equality was adopted by the UN as the fourth national world conference on gender. The federal plan basically focused on the governments efforts towards ending the gender inequality. It is a statement of commitment and the future frame work for approaches to gender inequality. It also recognizes the women organizations and the non-governmental organizations that have enabled the closer look to the gender issues. It brings to reality the many issues that women face in terms of age, race, national and ethnic origin, physical disability, language and religion.
It recognizes the fact that despite the tireless efforts that have been put forward by the government and other organizations to end the gender violence, women have not yet achieved on equal terms the success than men have achieved. The federal plan called for the involvement of both men and women in the search for an equitable society that would benefit both men and women. Gender equality cannot be achieved if the women are not allowed to compete on equal terms with men. It recognizes the fact that building and strengthening the partnerships among the women and men, the universities , community groups, the private sector and the government would assist in the shifting of the resources to more effective and informed policies.
The federal plan includes eight objectives that are centered to the government’s commitment towards eradicating the gender inequality. One of the objectives was the establishment of the gender-based analysis which was aimed at forming departments and agencies that would inform and guide the future legislation and policies at the federal level. These institutions would assess at the federal level the effect of the potential differentiation on both men and women. The federal plan had the objective of improving the women’s economic power and welfare. It advocated for the valuation of the paid and the unpaid work that had been done by women, equitable participation of women in both paid and the unpaid labor force and also equitable sharing of responsibilities between men and women both at the family level and also at work. It also promoted the women entrepreneurship economic security and their well-being. Federal plan also focused on the improvement of women’s physical and psychological welfare
In this case it advocated for better health through research and policy development and changes in the practices within the medical sector. It also advocated for the decline in the violence that is performed against women and children. The Federal plan sort to strengthen the gender equality in the entire cultural heritage of Canada, it promoted the participating of women in governance and having equal opportunities at the decision making levels. It also focused its agendas on the support of global gender equality and also promoting the equality of employees of the federal where both men and women were given equal opportunities to gain employment.
Canada has always been committed in the fight for gender equality as an essential component for sustainable development, social justice, peace and security. Attaining sustainable economic growth calls for the recognition of the capability and the potential of women in building the economy. Lack women participation in the economy results to the wastage of labor and thus a resource required for development. There is the existence of the institutional infrastructure that addresses the issues of gender inequality. There is also improvement in terms of mechanisms that support gender equality and also mechanisms that allow for better transmission of information.
Canada also holds some foreign policy priorities that are directed towards ending gender violence. This includes the elimination violence against women, the full and equal participation of women in decision making and the mainstreaming of gender perspectives. It achieves these priorities by its participation in the multicultural institutions such as the UN and also bilateral discussions with the individual countries and also throughout the development assistance delivered by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
Organizations such as the UN and other non-governmental have played a very signification role in advancing for women rights and gender equality internationally.
Conclusion
In conclusion it is very important for people to change their perception on women as the weaker sex. Women should not be marginalized but instead they should be incorporated in every aspect of our daily lives. It still remains a challenge for most Canadians to adapt to the changing government and economic environment. It is also difficult to incite further policy amendments between the government and the nongovernmental organizations. Women’s role in the society has improved and changes the lives of many over the centuries. The efforts of the women in the past centuries have given the current generation of women the rights and privileges that they enjoy today. The legacy that was left by these women has given rise to the women’s day , where women are expected to come out in support of the women’s efforts in bringing change to the modern world and also to pay their respects to the older generation of women who paved way for many women to achieve their goals and dream. Today the gender equality in Canada is guaranteed by the rights and freedom charter besides the many human rights to which Canada is a signatory. Today Canada is one of the leading countries that promote and protect women’s rights and gender equality.
Bibliography
Bakker, Isabella. 1994. The Strategic Silence: Gender and Economic Policy. London: Zed Press/ The North-South Institute.
Bashevkin, Sylvia. 2002. Welfare Hot Buttons: Women, Work, and Social Policy Reform. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Brodie, Janine. 1995. Politics on the Margins: Restructuring and the Canadian Women’s Movement. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
Clarke, John. 2004. Changing Welfare, Changing States: New Directions in Welfare Policy. London: Sage.
McKeen, Wendy. 2003. Money in Their Own Name: The Feminist Voice in the Poverty Debate in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Moira Armour, Pat Stanton.1990. Canadian Women in history:A chronology. Toronto: Green Dragon Press.
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