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Essay on women's movement
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Since 1945, Canadian society's attitude toward gender and orientation has changed dramatically. Prior to the women's movement that took root in the 1960's, women were often encouraged to adhere to traditional standards of feminine behaviour, such as cooking and cleaning, rearing children and being a housewife. Similarly, people of different sexual orientations were also encouraged to conform to various norms and cultural customs that many found exclusionary and oppressive. Today, however, it is common for women to work outside the home, women have surpassed men in university completion, and governments are increasingly prioritizing public investments in things that improve the lives of working mothers, with universal childcare and all day kindergarten
In Canada, women make up slightly more than half of the population. However, throughout Canadian history and modern day, women are needing to stand up for themselves and other women to bring about change. Canadian women are strong and have the power to work together and bring about change. Jennie Trout stood up for Canadian women that wanted to be in the medical field, women during WWI made a difference in their lives by entering the workplace and standing for their right to work, Nellie McClung was a leader for women’s suffrage, and The Famous Five campaigned and won The “Persons” Case allowing women to be considered persons under the Canadian Constitution. These women were instigators of change. Change for women only occurs when ambitious and courageous women stand up for a difference that they deserve.
Before World War I, equality for woman and men were very unfair. Woman weren’t even legally “persons”; they weren’t allowed to join parliament or the senate because they weren’t legally “persons”, therefore these jobs were occupied by men only. During World War I and World War II, many men had left for war, thus meaning there were many job openings that needed to be occupied as soon as possible, women then began to take on stereotypical male jobs which men thought women couldn’t do or couldn’t do as well. Women showed their capabilities and realized they shouldn’t be considered less than men. In retaliation of not being considered “persons”, women decided to take action. The famous five brought the persons case upon the supreme court of Canada in 1927, which was finally determined by Judicial Council of Britain's Privy Council in 1929. The “persons” case involved women not legally being “persons”. After the famous five won the case, women were legally considered “persons” then women began to join important jobs such as members of parliament and the senate. Along with becoming “persons”, women were beginning to get their right to vote in provinces slowly. In 1916, four provinces gave women the right to vote provincially and, finally, in 1940, the last province (Quebec) gave women the right to vote provincially. Later, in World War II, there was another change in
Canadian workplaces today seem to be a fairly diverse place, with a blend of many religions, ethnicities, and genders present. However, although people preach affirmative action and melting pots in current times, many inequality and power issues still abound. One strikingly noticeable example is gender discrimination. Women in the workforce face many challenges like smaller wages, harassment, male privilege in hiring or promotions, and lack of support when pregnant or raising children. One half of the planet is women, and it can be assumed the same for Canada, but they still face judgment at work because they lack the authority to dispute against big corporations or even their male supervisor. It cannot be argued that Canadian women’s status has worsened over the past hundred years, of course, thanks to feminism and activism. However, their status is not as high as it could be. Women as a group first started fighting for workplace equality during the second wave of feminism, from the 1960s to the 1990s. Legislation was approved during the second wave to try to bring gender equality to the workplace. Feminists both collided and collaborated with unions and employers to ensure women received fair treatment in an occupation. Quebec had the same issues, only the province approached the conflict differently than English Canada with its own unique viewpoint. It became clear that women were entering the workplace and did not plan on leaving. Second-wave feminism in Canada shifted power from the government and businesses to women in order to try to bring equality, although the discrimination never completely disappeared.
When looking back at the developing countries of the nineteenth century, it is quite simple to see that Canada was one of the most advance countries in the world. Eventhough this free and democratic country advanced itself in the areas of equality throughout the years; there will forever be inequalities for some, and struggles for many. Petticoats and Prejudice gives clear and precise examples of the hardships women fought through in the 1800s.
The social perception of women has drastically changed since the 1950’s. The social role of women during the 1950’s was restrictive and repressed in many ways. Society during that time placed high importance on expectations of behavior in the way women conducted themselves in home life as well as in public. At home the wife was tasked with the role of being an obedient wife, caring mother, and homemaker. Women publicly were expected to form groups and bond over tea with a slice of cake. All the while government was pushing this idealize roll for women in a society “dominated” by men. However, during this time a percentage of women were finding their way into the work force of men. “Women were searching their places in a society led by men;
Gender equality had always been a vast topic for the ancients to solve and for modern society to improve on. From the society's early beginning of Masculinity to the gender equality contemporary world that we are maintaining, year 2016 has been exactly a century since women in Canada had first received their right to vote in the 20th century. In today’s world, it is not uncommon or abnormal for abounding amounts of females voting or running for political parties. This hundred-year recognition was earned through many female’s and male’s withstand to rights for women to vote. Many trials and obstacles were present for women when they were fighting for their right
To begin, during the 19th and early 20th centuries Canada was industrializing; thus, there was a shift from rural farming to urban industrialism. This meant that women could no longer participate in the family earning, the family act of living off of the fruits of your labour from the farm because men were being moved to the factories were there existed a wage. Women were excluded from this type of employment because there of an ‘ideology of domesticity’ that claimed that “women were to be mothers and housewives and to exhibit piety, purity, domesticity and submissiveness.” There was a belief that if women entere...
Before the outbreak of World War I women could rarely get jobs, the role of a woman was to stay home and take care of her husband and children. It was when World War I broke out, that working women became a normal sight . Unfortunately, when World War I was over, women were expected to return and resume their role of taking care of their family. Then the Great Depression broke out, and women were still expected to stay at home, even though it would have been advantageous for them to be working with their husbands. When World War II broke out women were once again called upon to work in factories, and just like the end of World War I, returning veterans wanted their jobs back . It was still not accepted by the majority of Canadian men for women to work. Job aspects were looking down for women, by 1946 the rate of women's participation in the labour force had dropped to Depression levels , but since women’s contribution in World War II had been so impactful, a feminist movement started to occur; married women began entering the labo...
From 1960 to 1990 the women’s movement in Canada played a significant role in history concerning the revolution of women’s rights. Although it was a long road coming for them, they were able to achieve the rights they deserved. Women struggled for equality rights to men but primarily their rights as a person. Since the 1960s women’s rights had significantly changed, they had to work hard for the rights that they have in the present day. Females across the nation started speaking out against gender inequality, divorce, and abortion. This uprising coincided with the Women’s Movement. Through the Royal Commission on the status of women they were able to gain equality rights and they were able to have access to legal abortions through the Charter Rights of Freedom and obtain no-fault divorce through the Divorce Act of 1986.
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.
Before the 1920s men and women were thought to have two separate roles in life. People believed women should be concerned with their children, home, and religion, while men took care of business and politics. In 1920 there were significant changes for women in politics, the home, and the workplace. When the 19th amendment passed it gave women the right to vote. “Though slowly to use their newly won voting rights, by the end of the decade women were represented local, state, and national political committees and were influencing the political agenda of the federal government.” Now a days it’s normal for women to be involved in politics and it’s normal for women to vote. Another drastic change
Caregiving and homemaking are the primary roles given to women by society. And as Brigid Schulte stated in her article “Women aren’t the only ones trapped by gender roles”, “As long as women are expected to do the bulk of the caregiving and housework, and work cultures respect and reward people who don’t, women will remain at the disadvantage”. This quote simplicity sums up the effect traditional gender roles on the potentials of women. As long as these societal expectations are set in place, men will be the ones consistently given the rewards because their position in society is seemingly “superior” to women. According to an article from Forbes magazine entitled “The 5 Most Damaging Myths That Keep Women From Advancing and Thriving In Our World Today”, the second most damaging myth is the thought “that gender equality is just a workplace issue”(Caprino). Though this is a major issue surrounding traditional roles, the behavioral and physical expectations of men and women cannot be overlooked. “Social roles are the part people play as members of a social group. With each social role you adopt, your behavior changes to fit the expectations both you and others have of that role”(McLeod). Women are expected by society to be dependent, passive, emotional, and nurturing and look graceful and petite. Opponents to the aforementioned statements would suggest that
These things continue many centuries but now you do not have face that much difficulty compare to the last centuries. Before, women have to stay at home and they have to take care of their small children. Government introduce the two policy, and they are child care system and equal pay for work of equal value. In child care system, government introduced the daycare. In Canada, daycare was proposed in 1970 but Quebec was exception. To continue the child care system, provincial government introduced the comprehensive family policy. This policy attempts to integrate family benefits, paid parental leave, child care and kindergarten. With these policy, women can work not as part-time but full time, and you will have an experience that normally company ask you. Second policy was equal pay for work of equal vale. Even though that not in all country, it was that women will earn same amount as men earn in any field. But in 1985, Manitoba become the first Canadian province to implement equal pay for work of equal value in the public service. And now, this policy become official in 10 of 13 Canadian jurisdictions; Alberta, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories are the exception. Inequality form did not end but even is not bad as much as it was before. Now at least, women have the authority to speak, to do anything they want. When all people judge you the way you work in company not the gender wise than gender gap in earning will be eliminate for
Sexuality throughout different cultures can tend to be in disagreement with each other and it can become more apparent when they are all together in a society. Eurocentric sexuality is considered the standard within Canadian society and that has a habit to clash with the many other cultures that consider sexuality completely different.
As long as there is gender bias, it will be reflected in rates of gender-based violence. For most of history, women have largely been on the receiving end of such violence. Women were, and in many cases are, seen as the lesser sex, with an extensive lack of rights granted to them in most historical and religious contexts. It is only in the 20th century that females began to see some of the rights males have always enjoyed extended to them. However, the fact remains that there is still a startling amount of violence against women, even in the developed world. The question Canadians need to ask is whether or not their government has done enough to help stop violence against women?