Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Gender inequality at workplace causes and effects
Gender inequality at workplace causes and effects
Gender inequality at workplace causes and effects
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Gender inequality at workplace causes and effects
Introduction One certainty regarding the Canadian labour market is that, simply, some jobs are better than others. When comparing what makes one job better than another, various factors such as work hours, wages, benefits, and security are assessed. It makes sense that permanent, full-time, well-compensated, secure positions would be considered “better” than precarious (unreliable and/or unpredictable), part-time, temporary, low-wage, benefits-absent jobs would be. However, to complicate this labour market division further is the overwhelming presence of inequality within the market(s), driven by historical conditions and ongoing market standards which have put and kept women, visible minorities and other groups in a vulnerable position. It …show more content…
Job insecurity is characterized by precariousness stemming from non-standard work. Job inequality is characterized by status differences that are dependent on social group affiliation, negatively affecting workers on the basis of gender, visible minority, age, etc. Both insecurity and inequality are phenomena that can be explained …show more content…
Reducing Inequality through Policy Krahn p 156 Ehrenreich p. 235-236 Conclusion Barbara Ehrenreich comments on the increasing prevalence of downward mobility that “…once you fall into the low-wage, survival-job trap, there 's a good chance that you will remain there” (2006, p. 210). There is no better lobby group to widen the primary labour market and change the way employers cost-save than the unemployed and underemployed (Ehrenreich, 2006, p. 236). I agree with Ehrenreich that change cannot be left up to employers and governments as they have the most to gain from perpetuating inequality and insecurity. The way to make change is for the marginalized, unemployed, and underemployed to unify/organize in common purpose. If this is the largest and fastest-growing segment of the labour market population, surely meaningful impact is
Summary: Canada should commit to developing and passing a compulsory and proactive pay equity law similar to Iceland to address pay inequality and outline corrective actions to close the gender wage gaps in workforces. It is recommended that a pay equity law should be passed to ensure that there is a fair pay system in place that is transparent and free from gender biases. The pay equity law will require employers to identify and correct gender discriminations that are present in the workplace
Precarious employment, also known as precarious work, is a type of employment that is unstable, doesn't provide job security, may have high risk working conditions, often does not provide much in the way of benefits nor the option for workers to join a union, and typically provides low wages that usually are, on their own, insufficient to support a basic household. Precarious employment can include part-time, temporary, self-employment and contract work categories. In recent years during tougher economic conditions, this type of employment has become more and more common in some of Canada’s most populated major cities, such as Toronto and Hamilton, and it continues to be on the increase. Employers are taking advantage of this less expensive
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.
Based on the preliminary research I conducted, I have been able to identify two key topic areas that are of interest to me and these include: immigrant women attaining jobs in Ontario and violence experienced by women in Canada. In regard to immigrant women attaining jobs, there are significantly higher unemployment rates and lower wages that they are faced with, in comparison to other immigrant men and Canadian-born men and women. The debate circulating around this issue seeks to answer whether gender, immigrant class, age, ethnicity and sexuality all play a role in an immigrant woman’s ability to be employed (TIEDI, 2010, p.1). Some key questions that have arisen focus on workplace policies and programs that create further disparity within the gender gap, rather than aiding immigrant women who have differing needs in the labour market. Questions posed, seek to find the contributing factors to lower wages and what can be changed in the regulations to create equity (TIEDI, 2010, p.6). As well, a study conducted by Anucha et al. (2006) examines what are the outcomes of immigrant women participating in the economy and how this varies from other males, along with the social impacts of being employed (p.5).
The major purposes of this paper are, first, to examine the impacts of collective bargaining on labour market outcomes for women workers in Canada, specifically with respect to pay, benefits coverage, the incidence of low pay and the extent of earnings inequality, and, second, to suggest ways in which positive impacts could be extended via the expansion of collective bargaining coverage. This part of the paper briefly reviews the literature on the impacts of collective bargaining on earnings, low pay, and earnings inequality, and Part II provides some background description of the labour market position of Canadian working women. Particular attention is paid to the situation of the majority of women who continue to work in lower paid, often insecure and part-time, clerical, sales, and service jobs. The central conclusion of the empirical analysis in Part III, mainly based on data from Statistics Canada's 1995 Survey of Working Arrangements, is that collective bargaining coverage, controlling for other factors, has significant positive impacts in terms of raising pay and access to benefits, and in terms of reducing the incidence of low pay among women workers. However, the level of collective bargaining coverage for women is very low in precisely those sectors of the economy where women in low paid and insecure jobs are most concentrated, namely in private services and in smaller enterprises. Promoting better labour market outcomes for women workers accordingly requires a major extension of collective bargaining. Part IV of the paper briefly considers ways in which this could be achieved through trade union action and through changes to public policy.
Al-Waqfi, M., & Jain, H. C., (2008). RACIAL INEQUALITY IN EMPLOYMENT IN CANADA: EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS AND EMERGING TRENDS.
The structural-functional analysis of jobs in the U.S. is governed by the workforce stratification and technology. The more educated and diverse a society is the better society’s job market is served. This social economic separation of class has been both good and bad for society. Many workers at the lower levels of employment are both pleased and displeased with many aspects of work. Though this fact also holds true with most any job at any level, pay scale often compensates for endurance of a particular job type. The security of a person’s job also is an issue that in today’s economic times forces one to be prepared for change. This is to say that even if one’s field of expertise is needed today it may not be tomorrow. This type of ever-changing job market leads many to believe that another socio-economic change may occur at any time. This change was apparent with the transition into the industrial age and again in the information age. These concerns caused stress, various health issues, a...
Are you aware that in certain professions women are payed as little as 55.6% of their male counterparts salary; this is called a gender wage gap. Women are being payed less than men for working the same jobs are the male workers. The gender wage gap isn’t something that has happened recently. On contrary, this has been a social injustice since before people knew it was unfair. Also, the gender wage gap doesn’t just happen in certain professions. In fact, women are payed less than men in many professions, not just one.
On June 10, 1963 Congress passed the Equal Pay Act this law made it illegal to pay women lower wage rates for the same job strictly based on their sex. Before that separate job listings for men and women advertised in newspapers with different pay scales for the same jobs with the highest-level jobs advertising for men only. Subsequently two important court cases, Schultz vs. Wheaton Glass (1970) which ruled jobs only need to be substantially equal and not identical to be protected under the Equal Pay Act and Corning Glass Works vs. Brennan (1974) that determined women could not be paid less simply because they would work at a lower pay rate than men helped to strengthen and further define the Equal Pay Act (Rowen). Although the Equal Pay
Income inequality has been a big factor for many years; Americans hold the wealthy, mostly responsible because of their irresponsible obligations of the economy, stimulated to some degree by rising inequality. Taxing the wealthy does not seem to be the most undeviating resolution to these problems, however putting the economy back on track through justifiable growth does. Americans support guideline laws, job development, fair pay, and education opportunities. Mostly Americans care about opportunities, previously stated, and not income inequality, which was the wrong route to go down. Inequality can itself twist incentives and limit opportunities. This income inequality eventually leads to recessions and depressions. The non-awareness of Americans for income inequality is from chasing opportunities that are not there instead of standardizing the income
“Inequality at work is the existence of unequal opportunities and any form of bias or discrimination that takes place in a work environment. It is allowed and promoted by the workplace authority.” (Acker, 2006) Inequality will bring drawbacks to the workplaces such as lower the productivity and inferior performances of the workers, this will result in negative outcomes of the whole business. There are several forms of inequality at work: gender, social class and race (Undurraga, 2014). In the workplace, a hierarchy is usually existed (Hyman, 1979). Employees who have a higher position such as managers are paid higher salaries and have more prestige and authority than the employees who have a lower position (Cowherd, 1992). “ Management means
Studying our past human history in the workforce, you can see which trends will be the most powerful. One of those most powerful trends is that the fact that more people are working in service industries rather than the manual labor jobs. According to Volti, “In a relatively short space of time, we have gone from an economy where most adults (and many children as well) worked as farmers, miners, and factory operatives to one in which the majority of the workforce is employed in healthcare, education, government, sales, and other service industries” (274). Wherever the money goes is where the support will go and, in this case, service industry employees have more support than the manual labor workers. The economy is pushing these non-manual
The destruction of labour and skills that may occur due to unemployment is only part of a wide range of factors that impacts the quality of workforce opportunities between the employer and employee. Underemployment may negatively affect quality of labour, as it does not allow individuals to utilize the full range of skills possessed over time. While underemployment represents a significant issue for youth, it illustrates itself through both underutilization of skills and underutilization of labour; however, the challenge of underemployment is focused on youth in this report, it is not only unique to just youth, but is experienced by workers in all age
are many types of barriers that are not openly blatant and are in place so that minorities don’t get the opportunity to overcome these obstacles. As a result, many minorities including women cannot overcome ranks in the workforce and are left with the lower paying jobs. Furthermore, legislation in the Canadian government helps provide a