English Writer 13 | - Freelance Writer
Feb 12, 2018 | #1
Introduction
Despite much progress in gender disparities, equality in the workplace remains a predominant point of concern among women, specifically, as this study concludes, in Canada. Disparities, however, become all-encompassing and can refer to issues across a broad spectrum of situations and places making it important to examine the most concerning differences women face in today's workplace. In terms of gender gaps, a woman's income is typically about 61% of a man's in non-unionized jobs and 82% in unionized environments (Center for Social Justice). Women tend to be over-represented among the contingent workforce, indicating that statistical objectives do not pay close attention to accuracy whereas national organizations-and employment groups-fail to address the very root of the gender gap leaving Canada's working woman with few promising choices for making a decent living. These issues are disconcerting as many disparities can be resolved at the management level, indicating a central point of contention might be related to poor management due to inadequate training. As such, this paper aims to explore the gender gap with strong focus on wage disparities and treatment in the workplace while the writer also examines strategies of change that impart significant and long term changes for Canada's female worker. The premise of this study relies on the examination of change as a progressive tool and method to promote positive and equal treatment for women, reducing the gender gap in terms of job roles and earnings, and how workplace management must be knowledgeable and compliant in areas of equality for additional and continued improvements to be noted.
Overview
Historically, Canadian women are overlooked for positions that could prove fruitful for household incomes and companies throughout the nation. Sadly, the positions have not changed as much as some would believe. In cases where women have obtained a quality education, their earning potential remains significantly lower than men. In fact, studies indicate that females with higher degrees are likely to encounter greater inequality due to heightened discrimination by their male counterparts who view their advancement as a threat.
Davies, Mosher and O'Grady reveal two distinct competing explanations of gender inequalities in the workplace, the first being a "function of disparities in productivity" (p. 126) which leads to wage discrepancies. It is further believed that women and men are paid unequally because they bring different levels of education, training, experience, or other generators of productivity to the workforce. Moreover, Davies, et al. claim that "women receive humbler returns to experience because their domestic duties produce interrupted employment histories [that] are unattractive to employers (p. 126). While some aspects of the authors' claims might be accurate, there remains a large portion of these claims that do not coincide with current law and the fact that women have proven themselves to be equally competent in terms of education and training; however, their male counterparts and specifically male supervisors do not see the woman worker as contributing as much in terms of human capital in the workplace.
At present, the Canadian workforce consists of over 12 million workers with nearly 6 million being female. Despite sluggish change in the gender gap, the number of women in the workforce has steadily increased with reported changes between 1976 and 1999 being 37.1% to 45.9%. While the authors report that most women work in what are considered to be traditional jobs such as clerical or nursing, the Center for Social Justice reports in greater detail articulating how "women are over-represented in the ranks of the poor and under-represented among upper income earners" (par. 3). Specifically, the Center reports that women tend to be "segregated by occupation, having too few good jobs and too many contingent jobs" and are "additionally marginalized if they are women of color, aboriginal, with disabilities, younger or older" (par. 3). Single mothers tend to comprise a large portion of Canada's poverty stricken with very few making it to the ranks of the wealthy.
In what the Center for Social Justice refers to as a 3-fold factor, women are consistently under-represented in the top 20% of Canadian earners with only 11% making it to the top 20% compared to 29% of men with incomes exceeding $32,000. Further, occupational segregation contributes to the trend as women continue to hit barriers when seeking to progress to high paying professions and jobs. In specific categories, women comprise "only 5% of skill trades, 10% of fire and police forces [and] 21% of senior managers. Barriers are ever-present and remain significant including barriers that limit a woman's access to post secondary education due to high tuition costs and decline among available scholarships.
The contingent workforce is the fastest growing sector for women's employment in Canada, but they remain greatly over-represented with significantly lower wages and working part-time positions that are "non-unionized and insecure" (Center for Social Justice, par. 4). Disturbingly, women in the contingent workforce-including the self-employed-earn less than $11,000 or 59% less than men. Unions, however, have difficulty representing the female population because of the inability of females to participate in union activities. While union membership is fairly equal, the lack of representation by of women makes it al the more difficult for unions to adequately recognize some of the issues women face in the workplace. According to Cooke-Reynolds and Zukewich, women also face challenges as they are reported to be among the highest group with inconsistent patterns of employment. Nearly 41% of Canadian women are involved in non-traditional work arrangements such as teleworking (e.g work at home), part-time or temporary work assignments.
Based on this information, there is a clear avenue for examining the disparities in the workforce and to analyze ways to educate management on how to reach the female population to increase gender diversity in the workplace and to work toward making the overall job market more attractive for the female worker (e.g. equal pay, benefits, advancement opportunities, et al). However, the first step is for current companies-at the management level-to work collectively to eliminate inequality and discrimination in the workplace. As a result, Canada would see a greater input from all its citizens, thereby making its economy stronger and the collective nation more united. Further, by reforming gender-based laws, Canada would open the doors to a new and balanced workplace system that promotes innovation, productivity, and competitiveness, while it also promotes stability in the one-parent family household.
Equal access to jobs and training and pay equity are listed among the relevant issues for women by the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC); however, specific data relating to these same topics through CLC is limited. In fact, the majority of information sources available point to collective workforce dilemmas with little-if any-reference to women workers. For example, according to the CLC, GM recently announced plans to cut jobs in Oshawa, which some claim is a sign of disrespect for Canada, Ontario and the local community as the announcement was made "with no warning just as workers and their families are getting ready for the holidays" (Gruending, par. 2). Cuts are expected to impact 1,000 of the current 2,200 workers in GM's Camaro production facility. Collectively, GM employs 4,000 in Oshawa, down from its previous 23,000 employees several years ago. In terms of how GM cuts will impact the female workforce, again, the CLC does not specify; however, given the increasing number of women working on assembly lines-especially those in need of second jobs-the cuts can be expected to further impact the female working population and increase disparities in other industry sectors.
Canada's HR Reporter claims that Canadian women currently face struggles accessing "hot jobs" which widen the gender gap (Reaney). This author specifically explains that women are "blocked from advancing in their careers because of unequal access to high visibility jobs and international experience, according to a new report" (par. 1). Women with the same educational level typically start lower level jobs and receive less pay than men. Similar studies reveal that certain on-the-job experiences (e.g. high visibility projects, having mission-critical roles, and international experience) predict advancements and, sadly, most women are not given equal opportunity to achieve or obtain these "critical experiences" (par. 2). Among workers with high profile jobs, 62% say their jobs have the greatest impact on their careers whereas only 10% credit corporate training as a long-term positive impact. Further, among men and women working similar projects, projects with male heads are twice the size of those led by women; more men oversee bigger teams, "have greater corporate visibility and roles with critical responsibility, and managed budgets over $10 million" (par. 10). Despite the efforts by women to exert the same quality of work and collectively apply the same efforts, the results are less for women than men across the board.
The consistent inequality in job access and lower pay is one reason Canadian women have increasingly entered into self-employment and small business ownership. Interestingly, women entrepreneurs contribute "an estimated $18 billion to the Canadian economy" and have attracted "much attention from policy makers and academic researchers alike" (p. 107). Despite these impressive figures, women entrepreneurs face similar challenges when entering a business world dominated by men. As such, on both sides of the workplace, women continue to experience fewer opportunities, stagnant or limited results from engaging in traditional male-dominated roles, and find that others tend to view their presence as less than that of a man in the same position. Hughes reports "there is growing evidence of diversity among Canadian women entrepreneurs, both in terms of their economic performance and success, as well as their motivations for pursuing their own business" (p. 107), which leads one to question what can be done to improve the woman's position in the workplace.
As previously stated, many workers in high end jobs claim that corporate training has little-if any-affect on advancement and success. If this claim is true, how can corporate training improve to meet the needs of women workers? What can be done to ensure women received equal pay and equal access to jobs? There are a number of options with the two most prevalent being stronger and tightly enforced laws that protect women's equal rights in the workplace and a great understanding and application of accurate corporate training programs that stress and enforce a gender-blind opportunity for individuals within the company.
Despite the presence of pay equity laws, "only Ontario and Quebec have proactive pay equity laws which cover both the public and private sector" whereby "other provinces enacted pay equity legislation that covered only the public sector and didn't require pay equity to be maintained" (A Quick Education in Pay Equity, par. 10). Most jurisdictions and Canadian federal law include combine pay equity or equality provisions within human rights laws where women are required to file an official complaint against the employer with no guarantee for resolution and a greater risk of losing one's job. While Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that "every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination" (L'Heureux-Dube, p. 31), current equality conditions illustrate the lack of enforcement in Canadian law where gender is concerned. Arguments concerning financial inabilities and overall fairness are consistently presented in case after case which indicates a serious problem that must be addressed and remedied.
The history of reform efforts shows some signs of change although they are too few to be considered overly significant. As such, collectively, women and their respective rights organizations must ardently lobby lawmakers to push for continued reform. These efforts, however, will be limited to the extent of the urgency stressed by women and often take years to become law and even longer to be uniformly applied. As such, the urgency to implement corporate training programs designed to address issues of diversity and equality in the workplace appears to be the most effective and expedient method to reduce inequality and discrimination in the workplace. It is important to note, however, that such training programs must be concurrent to law reform efforts.
Women continue to fight for equality workplace and find they often face a two-fold battle: gender rights and racial discrimination. The struggles are compounded by the fact that many women are battling one another in the workplace. Regarding conflict resolution in the workplace, the Canadian Journal of Sociology reveals that the stresses women face have spilled over into the workplace (Srivastava). In a setting using a therapeutic and conflict-resolution framework, disparities between female coworkers were found to be race-related with the most reported distresses coming from white females. The most common reactions are resistance ("Don't talk to me about any of these issues"), vulnerability ("I can't handle it"), and reproach. According to recommendation by Srivastava, the use of a framework option has been successful, specifically as the framework ardently works to address the issues and reactions of women (p. 55). However, there are limitations with the most common being women's inability to engage in the "let's talk" approach, which Srivastava reveals does not appear to aid in reducing workplace stresses (p. 55). In fact, historically, women have held a position of subservience thereby rendering their ability to "talk it out" a hard effort.
Eichler credits such problems as being related to the woman's reduced standard of living compared to their male counterparts. This is particularly true among single women or single mothers where pressures to fulfill the duties of the household caretaker while also being thrust into the workplace are compounded. Furthermore, based on the limitations listed by Eichler, these problems are also related to the issues faced in the courtroom, lack of judicial discretion in this area, and the imperative need for reform (e.g. issues with formal and substantive equality).
L'Heurex-Dube explains formal equality as the provision that "every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination" (p. 31), whereas substantive equality requires a more intense level of thinking and approaching differences (p. 31) as it "mandates close scrutiny of legislative distinctions to ensure that they do not single out historically disadvantaged and socially vulnerable groups" (p. 31). In the context of equal jobs and equal pay, substantive equality rests on the female gender as less important than the male gender. Furthermore, in spite of arguments against the validity of gender inequalities, Canada has a long history of having a high level of suffering in the human rights arena, particularly where women are concerned. As such, these are among the very issues that should be included in corporate training programs to ensure that all workers-regardless of gender or race-are provided with the educational material and tools to modernize their thinking and to accept diversity and non-discriminatory policies, including the ramifications of breaching such policies.
Conclusion
Without a doubt, gender inequality remains a major issue among Canada's female population. While some progress has been notes, gender disparities-particularly in the workplace-remains a significant concern among women. As the Center for Social Justice has revealed women earn about 61% compared to men in non-unionized jobs and 82% in unionized environments. Current statistics are inaccurate as women tend to be over-represented among the contingent workforce. Further, as this study has revealed, national organizations-and employment groups-fail to address the very root of the gender gap at every level (e.g. job access, equal pay, discrimination) leaving Canada's working woman on the low end of the business world and with reduced chances to earn a decent living. While laws exist, they are limited with most being fully applicable to certain jurisdictions, indicating law reform is an urgent need. Nevertheless, law reform is a long and cumbersome process. Corporate training, though ineffective according to some, is the most promising and expeditious method of addressing inequality. Equal jobs and equal pay for women in Canada will only begin to see significant improvements after companies at the management level stringently implement and enforce corporate education and training programs and enforce strong policies that project women in the workplace.
References
Akyeampong, E.B. Working at home: An update. Perspectives on Labour and Income, 16-18.
Akyeampong, E.B., & Nadwodny, R. (2001). Evolution of the Canadian workplace: Work from home. Perspectives on Labour and Income, 2(9), 30-36.
Center for Social Justice (2012). Overview. Key Issues: Gender Inequality.
Cooke-Reynolds, M., & Zukewich, N. (2004). The feminization of work. Canadian Social Trends, 2(72), 24-29.
Davies, S., Mosher, C., & O'Grady, B. (1996). Educating Women: Gender Inequalities Among Canadian University Graduates. Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 33(2), 126.
Gruending, D. (2012). GM job cuts in Oshawa sign of disrespect: CLC says governments must work to reverse decision. Canadian Labour Congress.
Hughes, K. D. (2006). Exploring motivation and success among Canadian women entrepreneurs. Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, 19(2), 107.
L'Heureux-Dube, C. (1999). Changing face of equality: the indirect effects of Section 15 of the Charter. Canadian Woman Studies, 19(1-2), 30-6.
Reaney, P. (2012). Unequal access to 'hot jobs' obstructs women's careers: Report. Canadian HR Reporter.
Despite much progress in gender disparities, equality in the workplace remains a predominant point of concern among women, specifically, as this study concludes, in Canada. Disparities, however, become all-encompassing and can refer to issues across a broad spectrum of situations and places making it important to examine the most concerning differences women face in today's workplace. In terms of gender gaps, a woman's income is typically about 61% of a man's in non-unionized jobs and 82% in unionized environments (Center for Social Justice). Women tend to be over-represented among the contingent workforce, indicating that statistical objectives do not pay close attention to accuracy whereas national organizations-and employment groups-fail to address the very root of the gender gap leaving Canada's working woman with few promising choices for making a decent living. These issues are disconcerting as many disparities can be resolved at the management level, indicating a central point of contention might be related to poor management due to inadequate training. As such, this paper aims to explore the gender gap with strong focus on wage disparities and treatment in the workplace while the writer also examines strategies of change that impart significant and long term changes for Canada's female worker. The premise of this study relies on the examination of change as a progressive tool and method to promote positive and equal treatment for women, reducing the gender gap in terms of job roles and earnings, and how workplace management must be knowledgeable and compliant in areas of equality for additional and continued improvements to be noted.
Overview
Historically, Canadian women are overlooked for positions that could prove fruitful for household incomes and companies throughout the nation. Sadly, the positions have not changed as much as some would believe. In cases where women have obtained a quality education, their earning potential remains significantly lower than men. In fact, studies indicate that females with higher degrees are likely to encounter greater inequality due to heightened discrimination by their male counterparts who view their advancement as a threat.Davies, Mosher and O'Grady reveal two distinct competing explanations of gender inequalities in the workplace, the first being a "function of disparities in productivity" (p. 126) which leads to wage discrepancies. It is further believed that women and men are paid unequally because they bring different levels of education, training, experience, or other generators of productivity to the workforce. Moreover, Davies, et al. claim that "women receive humbler returns to experience because their domestic duties produce interrupted employment histories [that] are unattractive to employers (p. 126). While some aspects of the authors' claims might be accurate, there remains a large portion of these claims that do not coincide with current law and the fact that women have proven themselves to be equally competent in terms of education and training; however, their male counterparts and specifically male supervisors do not see the woman worker as contributing as much in terms of human capital in the workplace.
At present, the Canadian workforce consists of over 12 million workers with nearly 6 million being female. Despite sluggish change in the gender gap, the number of women in the workforce has steadily increased with reported changes between 1976 and 1999 being 37.1% to 45.9%. While the authors report that most women work in what are considered to be traditional jobs such as clerical or nursing, the Center for Social Justice reports in greater detail articulating how "women are over-represented in the ranks of the poor and under-represented among upper income earners" (par. 3). Specifically, the Center reports that women tend to be "segregated by occupation, having too few good jobs and too many contingent jobs" and are "additionally marginalized if they are women of color, aboriginal, with disabilities, younger or older" (par. 3). Single mothers tend to comprise a large portion of Canada's poverty stricken with very few making it to the ranks of the wealthy.
In what the Center for Social Justice refers to as a 3-fold factor, women are consistently under-represented in the top 20% of Canadian earners with only 11% making it to the top 20% compared to 29% of men with incomes exceeding $32,000. Further, occupational segregation contributes to the trend as women continue to hit barriers when seeking to progress to high paying professions and jobs. In specific categories, women comprise "only 5% of skill trades, 10% of fire and police forces [and] 21% of senior managers. Barriers are ever-present and remain significant including barriers that limit a woman's access to post secondary education due to high tuition costs and decline among available scholarships.
The contingent workforce is the fastest growing sector for women's employment in Canada, but they remain greatly over-represented with significantly lower wages and working part-time positions that are "non-unionized and insecure" (Center for Social Justice, par. 4). Disturbingly, women in the contingent workforce-including the self-employed-earn less than $11,000 or 59% less than men. Unions, however, have difficulty representing the female population because of the inability of females to participate in union activities. While union membership is fairly equal, the lack of representation by of women makes it al the more difficult for unions to adequately recognize some of the issues women face in the workplace. According to Cooke-Reynolds and Zukewich, women also face challenges as they are reported to be among the highest group with inconsistent patterns of employment. Nearly 41% of Canadian women are involved in non-traditional work arrangements such as teleworking (e.g work at home), part-time or temporary work assignments.
Based on this information, there is a clear avenue for examining the disparities in the workforce and to analyze ways to educate management on how to reach the female population to increase gender diversity in the workplace and to work toward making the overall job market more attractive for the female worker (e.g. equal pay, benefits, advancement opportunities, et al). However, the first step is for current companies-at the management level-to work collectively to eliminate inequality and discrimination in the workplace. As a result, Canada would see a greater input from all its citizens, thereby making its economy stronger and the collective nation more united. Further, by reforming gender-based laws, Canada would open the doors to a new and balanced workplace system that promotes innovation, productivity, and competitiveness, while it also promotes stability in the one-parent family household.
JOB ACCESS AND PAY EQUALITY
Equal access to jobs and training and pay equity are listed among the relevant issues for women by the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC); however, specific data relating to these same topics through CLC is limited. In fact, the majority of information sources available point to collective workforce dilemmas with little-if any-reference to women workers. For example, according to the CLC, GM recently announced plans to cut jobs in Oshawa, which some claim is a sign of disrespect for Canada, Ontario and the local community as the announcement was made "with no warning just as workers and their families are getting ready for the holidays" (Gruending, par. 2). Cuts are expected to impact 1,000 of the current 2,200 workers in GM's Camaro production facility. Collectively, GM employs 4,000 in Oshawa, down from its previous 23,000 employees several years ago. In terms of how GM cuts will impact the female workforce, again, the CLC does not specify; however, given the increasing number of women working on assembly lines-especially those in need of second jobs-the cuts can be expected to further impact the female working population and increase disparities in other industry sectors.
Canada's HR Reporter claims that Canadian women currently face struggles accessing "hot jobs" which widen the gender gap (Reaney). This author specifically explains that women are "blocked from advancing in their careers because of unequal access to high visibility jobs and international experience, according to a new report" (par. 1). Women with the same educational level typically start lower level jobs and receive less pay than men. Similar studies reveal that certain on-the-job experiences (e.g. high visibility projects, having mission-critical roles, and international experience) predict advancements and, sadly, most women are not given equal opportunity to achieve or obtain these "critical experiences" (par. 2). Among workers with high profile jobs, 62% say their jobs have the greatest impact on their careers whereas only 10% credit corporate training as a long-term positive impact. Further, among men and women working similar projects, projects with male heads are twice the size of those led by women; more men oversee bigger teams, "have greater corporate visibility and roles with critical responsibility, and managed budgets over $10 million" (par. 10). Despite the efforts by women to exert the same quality of work and collectively apply the same efforts, the results are less for women than men across the board.
The consistent inequality in job access and lower pay is one reason Canadian women have increasingly entered into self-employment and small business ownership. Interestingly, women entrepreneurs contribute "an estimated $18 billion to the Canadian economy" and have attracted "much attention from policy makers and academic researchers alike" (p. 107). Despite these impressive figures, women entrepreneurs face similar challenges when entering a business world dominated by men. As such, on both sides of the workplace, women continue to experience fewer opportunities, stagnant or limited results from engaging in traditional male-dominated roles, and find that others tend to view their presence as less than that of a man in the same position. Hughes reports "there is growing evidence of diversity among Canadian women entrepreneurs, both in terms of their economic performance and success, as well as their motivations for pursuing their own business" (p. 107), which leads one to question what can be done to improve the woman's position in the workplace.
As previously stated, many workers in high end jobs claim that corporate training has little-if any-affect on advancement and success. If this claim is true, how can corporate training improve to meet the needs of women workers? What can be done to ensure women received equal pay and equal access to jobs? There are a number of options with the two most prevalent being stronger and tightly enforced laws that protect women's equal rights in the workplace and a great understanding and application of accurate corporate training programs that stress and enforce a gender-blind opportunity for individuals within the company.
LAW REFORM
Despite the presence of pay equity laws, "only Ontario and Quebec have proactive pay equity laws which cover both the public and private sector" whereby "other provinces enacted pay equity legislation that covered only the public sector and didn't require pay equity to be maintained" (A Quick Education in Pay Equity, par. 10). Most jurisdictions and Canadian federal law include combine pay equity or equality provisions within human rights laws where women are required to file an official complaint against the employer with no guarantee for resolution and a greater risk of losing one's job. While Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that "every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination" (L'Heureux-Dube, p. 31), current equality conditions illustrate the lack of enforcement in Canadian law where gender is concerned. Arguments concerning financial inabilities and overall fairness are consistently presented in case after case which indicates a serious problem that must be addressed and remedied.
The history of reform efforts shows some signs of change although they are too few to be considered overly significant. As such, collectively, women and their respective rights organizations must ardently lobby lawmakers to push for continued reform. These efforts, however, will be limited to the extent of the urgency stressed by women and often take years to become law and even longer to be uniformly applied. As such, the urgency to implement corporate training programs designed to address issues of diversity and equality in the workplace appears to be the most effective and expedient method to reduce inequality and discrimination in the workplace. It is important to note, however, that such training programs must be concurrent to law reform efforts.
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Women continue to fight for equality workplace and find they often face a two-fold battle: gender rights and racial discrimination. The struggles are compounded by the fact that many women are battling one another in the workplace. Regarding conflict resolution in the workplace, the Canadian Journal of Sociology reveals that the stresses women face have spilled over into the workplace (Srivastava). In a setting using a therapeutic and conflict-resolution framework, disparities between female coworkers were found to be race-related with the most reported distresses coming from white females. The most common reactions are resistance ("Don't talk to me about any of these issues"), vulnerability ("I can't handle it"), and reproach. According to recommendation by Srivastava, the use of a framework option has been successful, specifically as the framework ardently works to address the issues and reactions of women (p. 55). However, there are limitations with the most common being women's inability to engage in the "let's talk" approach, which Srivastava reveals does not appear to aid in reducing workplace stresses (p. 55). In fact, historically, women have held a position of subservience thereby rendering their ability to "talk it out" a hard effort.
Eichler credits such problems as being related to the woman's reduced standard of living compared to their male counterparts. This is particularly true among single women or single mothers where pressures to fulfill the duties of the household caretaker while also being thrust into the workplace are compounded. Furthermore, based on the limitations listed by Eichler, these problems are also related to the issues faced in the courtroom, lack of judicial discretion in this area, and the imperative need for reform (e.g. issues with formal and substantive equality).
L'Heurex-Dube explains formal equality as the provision that "every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination" (p. 31), whereas substantive equality requires a more intense level of thinking and approaching differences (p. 31) as it "mandates close scrutiny of legislative distinctions to ensure that they do not single out historically disadvantaged and socially vulnerable groups" (p. 31). In the context of equal jobs and equal pay, substantive equality rests on the female gender as less important than the male gender. Furthermore, in spite of arguments against the validity of gender inequalities, Canada has a long history of having a high level of suffering in the human rights arena, particularly where women are concerned. As such, these are among the very issues that should be included in corporate training programs to ensure that all workers-regardless of gender or race-are provided with the educational material and tools to modernize their thinking and to accept diversity and non-discriminatory policies, including the ramifications of breaching such policies.
Conclusion
Without a doubt, gender inequality remains a major issue among Canada's female population. While some progress has been notes, gender disparities-particularly in the workplace-remains a significant concern among women. As the Center for Social Justice has revealed women earn about 61% compared to men in non-unionized jobs and 82% in unionized environments. Current statistics are inaccurate as women tend to be over-represented among the contingent workforce. Further, as this study has revealed, national organizations-and employment groups-fail to address the very root of the gender gap at every level (e.g. job access, equal pay, discrimination) leaving Canada's working woman on the low end of the business world and with reduced chances to earn a decent living. While laws exist, they are limited with most being fully applicable to certain jurisdictions, indicating law reform is an urgent need. Nevertheless, law reform is a long and cumbersome process. Corporate training, though ineffective according to some, is the most promising and expeditious method of addressing inequality. Equal jobs and equal pay for women in Canada will only begin to see significant improvements after companies at the management level stringently implement and enforce corporate education and training programs and enforce strong policies that project women in the workplace.
References
Akyeampong, E.B. Working at home: An update. Perspectives on Labour and Income, 16-18.
Akyeampong, E.B., & Nadwodny, R. (2001). Evolution of the Canadian workplace: Work from home. Perspectives on Labour and Income, 2(9), 30-36.
Center for Social Justice (2012). Overview. Key Issues: Gender Inequality.
Cooke-Reynolds, M., & Zukewich, N. (2004). The feminization of work. Canadian Social Trends, 2(72), 24-29.
Davies, S., Mosher, C., & O'Grady, B. (1996). Educating Women: Gender Inequalities Among Canadian University Graduates. Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 33(2), 126.
Gruending, D. (2012). GM job cuts in Oshawa sign of disrespect: CLC says governments must work to reverse decision. Canadian Labour Congress.
Hughes, K. D. (2006). Exploring motivation and success among Canadian women entrepreneurs. Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, 19(2), 107.
L'Heureux-Dube, C. (1999). Changing face of equality: the indirect effects of Section 15 of the Charter. Canadian Woman Studies, 19(1-2), 30-6.
Reaney, P. (2012). Unequal access to 'hot jobs' obstructs women's careers: Report. Canadian HR Reporter.