“The 51-Per-Cent Minority”: Through The Eyes of Rhetoric “The 51 Per-Cent Minority”, is an article, initially appearing in Maclean’s magazine in 1980. This article was written by Canadian author, journalist, and women’s rights activist Doris Anderson. Although the article does not evidently disclose its thesis, it can be understood that the message of the article is geared towards the demand for justice, in terms of the inequity women are faced with in society. To explain, Anderson initiated her article by discussing the unacceptable wage discrimination being presented towards all minority groups. Following the first 10 paragraphs of the article, Anderson shifts perspective to focus upon the injustices that women are presented with in society. To specify, she expresses women’s …show more content…
With that being said, Anderson had decided to publish this text with the great purpose of grasping the attention of the minorities and men as it was the men, back in the 1980s, who had the authority to fight for justice and bring upon call to action. Anderson exceptionally utilizes her knowledge on politics, surrounding wage inequality for minority groups in order to hook readers, other than women, long enough to initiate her main discussion regarding women. To extend, Anderson fulfills her purpose through the method of development known as compare and contrast in order to truly captivate her desired audience, igniting hope for informed men and minorities to use this knowledge in order to advocate for women's rights. To elaborate upon the method of development of comparing and contrasting, this rhetorical feature describes the similarities and differences of two things being presented.Having said that, this rhetorical feature has an immense impact on Anderson’ purpose. To describe, Anderson understood that men of the 1980s would not willingly select an article regarding hardships faced by women. Hence, she utilized the block method
In 1911, the Dower Act was finally passed in Alberta, which gave women the right to own one-third of their husband’s property.1 Emily Murphy's important decision to help amend the law in a way that it was beneficial to women showcases her determination to make sure women got their rights. Even though the law was not totally fair, it still shows that Emily Murphy took an initiative and helped women reach a step closer to their goal. Before Murphy took this essential action, many women were left homeless, since they had no right over their husband's property, and if she had not done so, many more women would fall victim.
In the year 1957, Canada elected its first Prime minister without English or French root, John Diefenbaker. While growing up in the city of Toronto, because of his German name, he was often teased. [1] He grew up as an outcast, and so he was able to relate to the discrimination and inequality many of the minorities in Canada felt. This essay will attempt to answer the question: To what extent did Prime Minister John Diefenbaker help promote equality to the minority communities. . The minorities in this time period were the women, aboriginals, and immigrants. During his time as the Prime Minister, he was able to help protect the rights of this group because many of their rights were being abused by the society. Diefenbaker also helped the minorities to stand up for themselves and other groups. Diefenbaker was able to bring positive change to the minority communities by making an official Bill of Rights and appointing people of discriminated groups to the parliament while other members did not.
The book became a great source of information for me, which explained the difficulties faced by women of the mentioned period. The author succeeded to convince me that today it is important to remember the ones who managed to change the course of history. Contemporary women should be thankful to the processes, which took place starting from the nineteenth century. Personally, I am the one believing that society should live in terms of equality. It is not fair and inhuman to create barriers to any of the social members.
Sex and gender inequality is one of the many issues handled in this book. This has always been a social problem in America and other nations. Sex and gender are different terms, where sex refers to the biological difference between men and women while gender refers to the differences between females and males that the society constructs between the two. These inequalities therefore, are society-created where men and women are treated differently not because of what they can do but who they are. The author dedication to portrayal of America as a society that disregarded their rights is therefore, in an attempt to create a society with gender equity and equality where a woman and man will be treated equally in work stations and other public places. The physical characteristics of women and their position as child bearers gave the men a convenience to use, exploit people who were their sex mates, companions and guardians of their children.
In this proposal our team seeks to explore the injustices within the Indian Act. To achieve this our proposed research will examine the target population being the aboriginal woman. The paper will further explore the oppressions faced by the aboriginal women within the Indian Act. In conclusion, this proposal will sum up the negative impact that the Indian Act had on aboriginal women and how it continues to oppress this population within the Canadian National discourse.
illustrates the discrimination against women and the issues that arise from a gender double standard society.
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.
Systemic discrimination has been a part of Canada’s past. Women, racial and ethnic minorities as well as First Nations people have all faced discrimination in Canada. Policies such as, Charter of Rights and Freedoms, provincial and federal Human Rights Codes, as well has various employment equity programs have been placed in Canada’s constitution to fight and address discrimination issues. Despite these key documents placed for universal rights and freedoms Aboriginal and other minority populations in Canada continue to be discriminated against. Many believe there is no discrimination in Canada, and suggest any lack of success of these groups is a result of personal decisions and not systemic discrimination. While others feel that the legislation and equality policies have yet resulted in an equal society for all minorities. Racism is immersed in Canadian society; this is clearly shown by stories of racial profiling in law enforcement.
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman point out the exploitation of women and the
To reach this goal and attain her purpose, Solnit appeals to both the logical and emotional sides of the audience. Through facts and statistics, she demonstrates that gender inequality is an undeniable truth, and that despite limited coverage of all but the “exceptional crimes” (524), the impact of this inequality has exorbitant ramifications. This information calls upon the readers’ logical sides – giving them facts and numbers that are hard to contest. For the majority of the essay, however, Solnit depends upon appealing to her readers’ emotional sides with the goal of inciting change. The author petitions the audience’s emotional side through her tone and delivery, portraying the gravity of the situation women face. Solnit further draws upon emotions by making connections to the struggles of the Civil Rights Movement. Finally, Solnit fulfills this purpose by expanding her audience to include both men and women, forming a larger group capable of reversing the situation. Appealing to both logic and emotion, Solnit advances her purpose of enacting
Knapp, Peter, Jane C. Kronick, R. William Marks, and Miriam G. Vosburgh. The Assault on Equality. Westport: Praeger Publishers, 1996.
In all societies around the world, women are treated as if they are a minority group, just like any racial or ethnic group that is out of the norm. The justification for considering women as a minority group and the existence of sexism becomes clear through the examination of social indicators, including education, employment, and income.
The division of labour and education along gender lines, racial inequalities and discrimination, and unpaid domestic labour all contribute to the growing feminization of poverty. Feminists are working to decrease the income gap, to benefit the overall health of women and the population at large. The term feminization of poverty describes the disproportionate amount of women who are poor, and its link to the division of labour along gender lines (Calixte, Johnson, & Motapanyane, 2010). The Canadian Labour Congress reported that in 2005, women working full time earned 70.5 cents to the dollar that every male in a comparable job earned ( as cited in Calixte, et al., 2010, p. 17) Across the board, women are more likely to suffer from poverty than men are (Harnan, 2006). Feminists are constantly trying to decrease the wage gap with activism.
Gender discrimination existed in greater amounts in the past than in today’s society. While the past tells us the story of women being of subordinate nature, always dependent on the men, being submissive to them and accepting men’s aggressive nature and living under their rule in the household, today’s society tells us the story of women’s empowerment and gender equity. However, we cannot say that gender equity exists in all household which brings us to the purpose of this research. The main aim of doing this research is to compare gender equality within the household in the past with that of the present and find out to what extent has gender equality been achieved in the house.
The modern world has resulted in earnings, wages and salaries for the women similar to that of men, but the women are continuously facing inequalities in the work force (Andal 2002). This2 can be attributed to the pre-established notion that women shall not be given access to finance or communication with the world outside of the home which is highly unethical and unfair (Eisenhower, 2002). In the past, they were considered as the underprivileged ones which were not thought of having equal rights but this fact has changed now. The status of women can be explicitly defined as the equality and the freedom of the women.