Discrimination is unacceptable under any circumstance. Not only is it an attack on ones soul, but it is also a form of both verbal and non-verbal abuse.
It is a fact, that in Canada women do not receive the same wages as men. “Women workers earn, on average, only 70 cents for every $1 a man gets – even though on an average, women are better educated than men”, says Doris Anderson. This has continued to plague female workers for no reason but their gender. “And when companies base pension plans on how long people live women still pay the same rates as men but often collect less” says Anderson.
Sexual harassment is another issue that Canadians should pay much closer attention to. Even today, when a woman is abused or raped there are people who believe that it is the woman’s fault because of the clothes she wears, or the way she smiles, or how she wears her make-up. It is as if a child was being bullied in the schoolyard. “That man’s imagination for a Scottish girl he could molest as she filed papers in the cabinets in the tiny office, it was that wanting to cry in my best suit and high heels I could barely walk in”, says Dionne Brand. Even though there is more awareness today about this problem in the workplace, it remains a black eye that should concern employers more than it does.
There has been a greater initiative for equal job opportunities, the fact remains that generally speaking higher positions on the corporate ladder continue to be filled by men. If two people are equally qualified for a position, why is it that women continue to be snubbed? “Work(ed) the kitchens of hospitals, and that is where I did find a job the next week” says Brand. This is where many brilliant minds will fade into oblivion, as oppose to being provided with an equal opportunity at a better paying, more societal important position.
The party discriminating usually is motivated due to person’s differences from themselves, and they are unable to comprehend or accept those differences between one another, and as a result those people discriminate. The only thing that is accomplished by bigotry is further hatred between differences. One form of this discrimination is displayed in the treatment of women in the workplace. This has become a prominent issue over the last 40 years, in which the women’s rights movement has provided a societal acceptance with integrating women into the workplace. In Canada, women must struggle through making reduced wages than men. Women are also bombarded with sexual harassment in the workplace. In terms of positions being filled by women there is a lack of equal opportunity.
Whether it is rooted in ethnicity, gender, age, size, it must stop in what we perceive to be our more advanced society. As a western culture, we have taken strides to stop the hatred between differences, yet we continue to push this fact that exists. We can no longer claim ignorance, as everyone is cognicsicant of this lowest form of hurting other human beings. Men must also take a larger stake; these are our mothers, grandmothers, sisters, daughters, and nieces, these are our fellow human beings.
1 Comment
December 14, 2007 at 10:15 pm
Good post Bryden. Well done!