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After considerations of the vote within Canadian society, we can find the general context of women beginning to earn not only the right as legal persons with Canadian democracy with said vote. But also, we can see the rise of women slowly but surely through the recent overturning in education and some of the slow and steady progression within the educational arena as well.
In the area of work, the job, or “labor,” an important step for the equality of women came from the Fair Employment Practices Act in 1951. Same with the Female Employees Fair Remuneration Act in Ontario. Each gave a basis for further equality of women. This time in the area of education. If you look into the former, the Fair Employment Practices Act, the clear protections for women in the work sphere came from the attempts to eliminate discrimination.
The elimination of the discriminatory practices in the workplace from the instigation of financial penalties or fines for the companies or managers or employers who may be not paying the same amount for the same work, for example. In the case of the complaints system, we see the development of the ability for women to move forward and make a formal complaint or statement of concern about the potential or actual discriminatory aspect of a job, e.g. unequal pay for work of equal value.
With the implementation of the ability for women to be able to work their way into the main economy of the society, it implied the twiddle of the dials in some areas of the society for women’s equality with some known and others not so known – dials – changes to the society. Those changes included women moving out of the home and having the potential, though limited, for equal opportunity and non-discrimination in the workplace.
That alteration to the landscape of the society with the potential for economic freedom of women came with the adjunction of a change to the ways in which women are viewed at in the home because one of the main placements for women in the history of the country was seen to be solely and only in the home as maternal figures, e.g. doing childcare and homecare, and serving a public utility for the state in pleasure for the husband or of service for free in the home sphere.
It seems telling to think of historical examples of the forced provisions on women in many contexts throughout the history of the world and even if taken as historical enshrined, unfortunately, in the world’s religions and their religious texts. The women of the 50s could have a recourse for further economic equality and, more importantly and concomitantly, autonomy. That economic autonomy meant the world for many women probably ‘dying’ to come out into the workforce and been seen as a full working, voting human being.
With the Fair Employment Practices Act (1951), that provided the basis for those forms of recourse and some of those changes. And those would be difficult circumstances at the early stages of attempting to get some head start in life and independence when it was not simply going to be handed out to you, or meted out whole cloth because the culture had not changed much in its entirety and perspective on the role and the ‘proper’ (moral judgment) place of women.
Indeed, all Canadians only got the full right to vote – simply needing to be Canadian rather than particular groups or people – in 1960. The latter document – the Female Employees Fair Remuneration Act – gave a foundation for women to seek the equivalent pay for equal work. If a woman was equally qualified and had the identical workload, then the woman had the ability to look into the second Act for the possibility of equal pay for equal work.
In particular relation between the two 1951 documents, the unequal pay for equal work could become something upon which an individual Canadian woman could use the latter to indicate unequal pay for equal work and then the former document to argue with a formal complaint in order to rectify the unequal pay. This is the history of Canadian work equity and pay equity in some of its earlier manifestations, which, as will be covered next, lead into the international rights an equality that women have begun to enjoy more and more as the timeline of the Canadian narrative has continued forward.
It means that the women of the society have provincial and territorial rights to vote and federal as well. The ability to pursue work and try to get equal pay for equal work and, indeed, be able to use formal mechanisms in order to do so. It is in this sense that Canadian society has been on a steady but difficult trajectory since its founding to provide greater and greater moorings for women to be able to have equality with the men.
One of the foundational means in all developing societies an in earlier Canadian society to be able to garner some power, influence, and prestige – and so respect – within the nation-state is to have the men see them as equals in the democracy, and so votes to be counted, and in the workplace, and so able to earn their keep on the job based on equal qualifications and performance.
The next steps within labour come to considerations of not only the national but also the international context of equality for the women in Canada.
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Image Credits: Pixabay