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The desire of women to be viewed and treated on an equal level to their male counterparts is not new, the womens movement has been growing for many generations, swelling rapidly since the 1800 s specifically. The goal of the womens rights movement, for the most part, is quite reasonable, they would like to see equal pay for the same work as their male co-workers, and they would like to see affirmative action encouraged in hiring policies, both in the public and private sectors. The womens movement is not without its absurdity though, with ridiculous demands such as mandatory daycare provided by employers and pension for housewives once they reach the age of 65. Generally speaking however the womens rights movement is necessary and should be met In order to understand the issues associated with the womens movement one must look at the history of womens suffrage. For most of history women have been second class citizens, relegated to traditional tasks such as child rearing and other tasks within the home. (Boyer, 580) In the past women were considered to be property of their husbands or fathers, as a matter of fact, in the early days of confederation, if a women was raped or murdered it was considered a property crime, and not a crime against the state. (Boyer 581) In Canada women were not considered people under the law, they could not vote, her property was not recognized under the law, and they could not be involved in politics in general. (Guy 334) However during this time period the suffrage movement was gaining widespread popularity all over North America, the public become aware of the problems faced by women, due in part to the tragic triangle shirtwaist fire, (Boyer 617) this began to lean public favor to the side of the suffragettes.
The desire of Canadian women to be treaty equally came to the forefront in 1929, when a group of women from Calgary took the famous peoples case before the British Privy Council. The Privy Council ruled in favor of the women and from that time on women in Canada could hold political office, vote and hold property. (Guy 334) This paved the way for the womens rights movement A key element within the womens rights movement is that of rights within the workplace, meaning pay equity and the chance to move up the corporate ladder. One often stated statistic within the womens movement has to do with pay equity, it is said that women, on average, earn only 74 cents for every one dollar a man makes. (Evans 257) Obviously there is a need for change, but it is not as simple as legislation, discrimination is embedded in the very structure of organizations, it manifested itself in recruitment, employment practices, and job training. These are the reasons why women are constantly condemned to such traditional positions such as nursing, secretarial work and childcare. (evans 312) In 1999 the Seattle Times published several articles on womens rights, and whether or not it was having a noticeable affect on hiring practices. The Times looked at two of Seattle's largest companies, namely Boeing and Microsoft, and discovered how many women each employed in their top ranking positions.
The numbers that were published proved to be shocking, with both companies employing an average of only 21. 35 % women within their high ranking positions. This type of study shows the obvious need for some type of reform. We have seen examples in the media of late which shows that the government is attempting to rectify these inequalities, one such example is their recent pay out to women who worked at Revenue Canada and received lower pay for doing the same job as their male co-workers. However it is my belief that solutions to these problems cannot be solved by the implementing of government regulations within the private sectors, which except in severe instances is only a negative occurrence, rather through education, both of the current realm of management, and the younger males who will be the next wave to enter the workforce. The womens rights movement is not without its idiocies however, such as the desire to have mandatory daycare established by companies for their employees, another foolish idea is the aspiration to have the government pay a pension to housewives, in addition to their old age pension. (Evans 219) The idea of having daycare's within offices is not new and is practiced, however forcing companies to install such facilities through legislation is not the answer. It is said that if a company provides such services they will be able to draw a wider talent base and therefore increase profit, though if this were true, in a free enterprise system such as ours, the companies that willfully implemented these ideals would succeed, while those who choose not to would in turn fail.
Another problem with this notion is that of responsibility, why should it be up to the employer to care for his workers children, certainly he wasnt involved in the decision to have the child in the first place, yet it is a good idea to make him care for it? Further the issue of pension for housewives is a farce, a person who spends the days working within the home, someone who earns no money themselves, therefore not paying into any pension plan period, should be entitled to not only one pension, but two? perhaps we should also pay them an hourly wage for the housework that they do perform, possibly we could even add them to the beuracracy. Let us not forget a women who is employed must complete the same chores as housewives, if anyone should receive such extra benefits it should be a person who actually contributes to the pot rather then simply emptying it. With such misguided ideals as those listed above it is easy to see why there is an opposition to the womens equality movement, which otherwise should be embraced.
One of the more important elements that comprises the womens rights movement is that of affirmative action. Affirmative action was born of the civil rights movement four decades ago, affirmative action calls for minorities and women to be given special consideration in employment, education and contracting decisions. Institutions with affirmative action policies generally set goals, and timetables for increased diversity, and use recruitment, set asides and preference as ways of achieving these goals. In its modern form affirmative action can call for an admissions officer faced with two similarly qualified applicants to choose the minority over the white, or for a manager to recruit and hire a qualified woman for a job rather then a man. Affirmative action decisions are generally not supposed to be based on quotas, nor are they supposed to give any preference to unqualified candidates, and they are not supposed to harm through reverse discrimination. (Compton's) There is an obvious need for affirmative action, to verify this all one needs to do is review the examples of women employed within fortune 500 companies. Mobil, for example, employees only one female officer versus 112 men.
Another example can be seen when one looks at Dupont, who has zero female officers and 29 men in these positions. (Seattle times) These statistics illustrate the need for some type of policies that address these problems. This was addressed in Canada in 1982 with the creation of the charter of rights and freedoms, which attempted to see to the fact that there would be no discrimination within the workplace, unfortunately there has been little or no enforcement of this laws and as a result the equality movement has decayed to the levels evident in the aforementioned statistics. (Evans 200) If this trend is to change the government needs to strongly enforce their laws, and see too it that these injustices are One very plausible way to create change in this current trend is to have a stronger female presence in our government, the reason being that if we had a strong female representation they would enact legislation and policies that would further the womens movement. (Tremblay 173) This concept is excellent due to the fact that it is totally democratic, it will gauge public opinion and implement policy based upon it. The problem with this however is women getting the opportunity, there is seldom an even number of candidates of each sex within the political parties, and often when women are given a riding it is one where the party has little to no hope of winning. (Tremblay 192) However there have been a few notable exceptions such as Kim Campbell, who became Canadas first female Prime Minister. If a change is made to allow women greater access to the political arena it could prove to be a stepping stone that may eventually lead to equality and in turn put both sexes on an equal basis.
The issue of womens rights is a complicated one, the issues date back many generations and will likely continue to be fought over for many years to come. It is clear that things such as pay equality and affirmative action need to be addressed and the problems of each do need to be rectified, however if the movement is to be a complete success it needs to rid itself of such misguided ideals as mandatory childcare and a pension for housewives. If the fat gets cut form the womens rights movement, and the emphasis is put on education rather then legislation, the public will embrace it and it will succeed. Bibliography: Works Cited Affirmative Action. Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia. CD-ROM.
N. p. : Compton's New Media, Inc. 1994 Boyer, Paul S. , et al. The Enduring Vision. 4 th ed. Boston: Houghton, 2000 Evans, Patricia M. Women and the Canadian Welfare State. Toronto, University Press 1997 Guy, James John People, Politics and government-A Canadian Perspective. 4 th ed.
Ontario, Prentice-Hall, 1998 Seattle Times Affirmative Action Sept 1999 Tremblay, Manon Women and Political Representation in Canada. Ottawa, University press, 1997
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Research essay sample on Womens Rights Movement 4 Th Ed
