Gender Equality: A Case for Equal Rights Between Men and Women

Throughout many decades before and after world war II, women continued to be demobilized from “mens” work. Women were seen as less than and continued to be belittled throughout many years. Many years ago, a just society meant little to nothing for women at all. Women have been trying to redefine their place in society. In addition to this, they strived for gender equality, equal pay and justice. Was Canada a just society for women? This is arguably one of the most pushed around topics, not only back in the 1940’s but now in the present day. In  man and woman should have equal rights' essay I want to share historical background to show up why we need to have equal rights. 

During world war II, the women's roles in Canada changed drastically. Although women were used to the fact of being belittled, they did not want to deal with that heartache anymore and decided to start a movement. The feminist movement happened between the periods of 1960 to 1985, “often referred to as second-wave feminism — included campaigns in support of peace and disarmament, equality in education and employment, birth control and an end to violence against women.” Women continued to fight for change, therefore educating the impression that this took many years. Women were expected to stay home and care for their children. In other words, women were not allowed to attend any sort of schooling until very late in the 19th century. From men leaving for war, women needed to ‘step up’ and take their places. Women had no say against anything and their opinions rarely mattered. Many years before this, women were seen as ‘unfit’ for any job in factories and many other places. As men and women worked the same job, in the same area and places, women were still paid less than any man.

For generations, women had been fighting for equality. In equality between man and woman essay it's important to rise up this topic too. One of the major factors of the inequality was women not being able to attend any sort of schooling. They were not allowed to attend school up until the late 19th century and they could rarely work, “education was not available to working class women until the end of the 19th century when some universities began to accept a few wealthy females''. While women were expected to stay home and take care of children, a grant was finally passed in the mid 19th century allowing women to be employed into schools, yet still not allowed to attend any. This happened because women could be hired at lower wages than men and women were kept at lower ranks, “By midcentury, women began to be employed in public schools, and by 1900 elementary school teaching was done almost entirely by women.” In addition to the statement made previously in man and woman are equal essay, this was a very controversial affair and women continued to not have an option, despite how hard they fought. In addition to this, women that were hired never got a chance to become hierarchy. This actively illustrates that women had to also be supervised by a male supervisor at all times. Therefore, women that were hired only got jobs until they were married, then they would lose the job after. Women are 60% of part-time students at university and part-time students are increasing as a percentage of all students. Now, women are significantly involved with education and have freedom to fulfill any desired education they would prefer without having to be wealthy. In conclusion to this topic, this was just one of many issues occuring around this period in time.

Women in the workforce was a controversial topic at first. Before world war II men thought women did not belong in the workforce and only belonged at home, with children. While legislation was passed for women to work in 1920, this was not a realistic lifestyle. Men were furious at the fact that it was a conserved option. Women faced discrimstion for a number of years. Consequently, this changed for the better in 1941, when women made up 19.9% of the workforce. Things changed drastically and went completely uphill from there, “From 1953 to 1990, the labour force participation rate for women grew steadily, rising from about 24% in 1953 to 76% in 1990. Meanwhile, the participation rate for men edged down from 96% in 1953 to 93% in 1990”. This is important to understand due to the fact that the inequality for women in the workforce was not fair at first. In fact, for a number of years, women were treated unequal and they would never be able to have an option on the actions made towards them, “Out of a total Canadian population of 11 million people, only about 600,000 Canadian women held permanent jobs when the war started. During the war, their numbers doubled to 1,200,000.” In addition to this, the Canadian workforce has seen an unremarkable change since the 1950’s, as a matter of fact, this is changing daily,“The increasing presence of women in the labour market led to a large rise in the median annual wages and salaries of women. Women's earnings more than doubled between the mid-1960s and the early 2010s, rising from $15,700 in 1965 to $37,200 in 2010 (in 2014 dollars)”. Without a doubt, this was a tremendous upbringing in the making, withholding many years of learning right from wrong and experience.

Throughout many decades, women have had worked equal amounts of work, yet got paid less than any man. This issue has been ongoing up to now; present day, “in 2018, female employees aged 25 to 54 earned $4.13 (or 13.1%) less per hour on average than their male counterparts. In other words, those women earned $0.87 for every dollar earned by a man”. As far as can be remembered, women have been paid less than, no matter how hard they've tried. In 1971, women earned 58% of what men did and in 1996, they earned 66%. As seen in the numbers, the percentage went up 8% in 25 years. These numbers are still not equal to men. As the years went on, and women still fought for equality there was never and change whatsoever, “At the end of the war, women were strongly encouraged to leave the workforce and married women employed by the government were legislated out of it”. Women that had gained the right to work, now had to be forced back into their homes to never work again. Moreover, this proves the point of women being treated like they were less than and not capable of doing things men could do. As a result, this is still an issue in today's society, women still face sexism, and still do not get equal pay.

To sum up everything that has been stated in men and women are equal essay, women were expected to stay home and care for their children. In other words, women were not allowed to attend any sort of schooling until very late in the 19th century. From men leaving for war, women needed to ‘step up’ and take their places. Women had no say against anything and their opinions rarely mattered. Many years before this, women were seen as ‘unfit’ for any job in factories and many other places. As men and women worked the same job, in the same area and places, women were still paid less than any man. Canada was not a just society for women for a number of reasons. To start, women still faced discrimanation for a number of years even after being allowed to go to school alongside teaching in them. Although women needed to “step up” they did, however still faced a number of sexist comments, actions and were repeatedly criticized for their work. Therefore elucidating the impression that Canada is an unfair and prejudiced society for women. Therefore, unequal pay for women was a problem since the 1940’s and will continue to be a problem.