User:Gender inequality/sandbox

Table of Contents:

 * Introduction/Problem Definition
 * History
 * Policy Solution
 * Theoretical Solution
 * Ethics
 * Conclusion
 * References

Introduction/Problem Definition:
The fight for Gender Inequality began in the early 20th century. It began with women fighting for basic human rights such as the right to vote. Women are still fighting for equality but today their focus is on equal wages in all professions and eliminating sexual harassment. There are many initiatives to help gain gender equality that don't just focus on women; many initiatives include men and the LGBT+2 community. The following will explain what gender inequality is and why it is still an issue in society today. It will also touch on issues that effect all genders, not just women.

History
Gender inequality is an ongoing issue in Canada still to this day. Women still lack the equal life that an average male would receive. Visible minorities have it even worse than Caucasian citizens regardless of gender. Canada has always had gender inequality issues, although Canada is trying to fix those problems, they still live to this day. In the early centuries of Canada and around the world women did not have any right to vote. They were thought to be less intelligent than men for political decisions. People thought that because women were already represented by their husbands they didn’t need the extra unneeded votes. Canadian women couldn’t vote until 1916-1920, however, they must be over the ages of 21 to vote in federal election. In 1916, women had the chances to vote in four different western provinces, and in 1917 they could vote in Ontario, Manitoba being one of the first countries allowing women the right to vote. 1920, Congress ratified the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote. Mid 19th century, women took over the male populations work while they were at war. Instead of women doing their normal at home jobs while their men went out and got an education and a paying job that would benefit them, they had that chance for a short time period. Women got tired of being treated that way and started movements to bring awareness to the issue. People use the word “feminism” in many different ways. Some think it is women trying to view themselves as better than men, that they deserve more rights, but that is not the case. Feminism is to describe the support for women’s rights, that they should be equal to men. This started with the First wave feminism, it focused on the equal rights for women, but near the end of the 19th century it was primarily focused on rights of women’s suffrage and the right for women to have custody of their own children and control of their own income.

WW2 in the 40’s brought white women into the workforce, this was designed for women to have the exact same rights as men. Which was the second wave feminism in the 60’s- early 80’s. Feminism was broadened to include various other issues such as sexuality, family rights, rape, as well as to give women autonomy over their own bodies. The second wave was around the time when the birth control pill was brought into women’s lives, women took this pill to focus on their education and future jobs instead of having to worry about unexpected pregnancy at the same time. Betty Friedan, one of the women who started a movement in the second wave time period, she wrote The Feminine Mystique (1963) and co-founded the National Organization for Women. She advocated for an increased role for women in the political process and encouraged women to seek new opportunities for themselves.

The third wave is women of colour wanting their voices to be heard, they want to be noticed as well as their opinions being valued. Strong women such as; Gloria Anzaldua, Bella Abzug, Audre Lord, Barbara Smith and a few others have made this possible for women of colour around the world. This wave focused on stereotyping, anti-racism, rape culture, and queer theory. It focused more on individual identity rather than laws. Rebecca Walker the one who made the concept “third wave feminism” addresses the oppression of the female voice. Riot grrl was a big part of third wave feminism, they wanted women to feel confident and to have control over their own voice. Their music explained the issues women are facing within them, issues like sexism, rape, violence, racism etc. This wave was primarily focusing on the backlash that was brought up from the last two waves of feminism. Gender inequality is a large issue in the world, people see it as focusing solely on women, however there are still issues that men have that are not fair. Some things that women get the opportunity to do men don’t, and are either cut from that chance completely or are limited to what they can do about it. Men statistically have a higher rate for car insurance than women do, they base some men on the rest of the male population without doing so for women as well. Men are listed as more aggressive and careless drivers which leads to paying a higher rate. Men were also forced to go to war, when that time came, they had no choice on the matter where women weren’t forced to go. Custody battles are on the side of women most of the time as well, there was a time when in a divorce the mother should always have the rights of the child(children). Normally when in custody battles, the judge grants custody to the mother of the child rather than the father because it is in best interest for the child.

Some men face more abuse than women, but it isn’t listed as a huge deal because men are seen as much larger than a woman and can defend themselves. But if it was vice versa it would be morally wrong for a man to hit a woman and most of the time charges would be laid on the male, very rarely are charges laid against women who hit men. There are certain expectations that are pushed upon men saying that they have to be the dominant one and that a woman has to be the passive one, the stress on the males to be in power of everything in relationships can be hard. Not to mention most male rape victims go unreported because it can be just as hard for men to discuss it as it would be for a woman to talk about it, lots of the time they go unreported due to nobody believing them or judging them saying that there is no way possible for a male to be a rape victim.

Sexual orientation and gender identity should never lead to discrimination or abuse. People of the lgbtq+ community should get the same rights as any man or women regardless of how they identify themselves. People from lgbt community often get judged for being a part of it, they aren’t treated the way they should rightfully be. They are regular people just like everyone else and deserve equal rights. For the longest time gay marriage was frowned upon, it wasn’t just until recently that it became legal. Same sex marriage became legal in Canada in 2005 and was the fourth to permit it after Netherlands, Belgium, and spain. Ontario and BC were the first two provinces to legalize the licensing for same sex marriage. Even though this is now legal, they still have people judging them daily on their sexual orientation. Transgendered are always judged as well for the way they look. For the longest time even if they identified as a different gender, they had to use the washroom that suited the gender that they received at birth. It was just recently that people opened their eyes to see that these people deserve rights too. Recently some high schools have made the step to create their very own all gender washroom to help make them feel welcomed. Some people feel that they don’t deserve equal rights to others but gender equality should benefit everyone not just certain people.

With the knowledge, most have on this issue from past events in history, it would affect how people understand it today. People have a better understanding of it considering how the issue is still occurring at larger social and political events. More people are getting involved, celebrities like Emma Watson who’s standing up for gender equality, Ellen DeGeneres for LGBTQ+ etc. are speaking out and making it easier for fans to come out as well and feel supported. Gender inequality has affected how people lived in the past because they felt that they couldn’t be themselves without being judged, they needed support from their peers. It affected women and their rights to live their own life the way they wanted instead of in the shadow of a male. It has affected the life of minorities who happen to be a certain gender, their race and gender gives them an even bigger disadvantage than say a white male or a white woman would have.

Emma Watson, a woman who created the “heforshe” campaign has brought many people to the attention for gender inequality. Getting the attention of women, male and people that identify from the LGBTQ+ community whether they are celebrities or even everyday people to support her and what this movement stands for. This being said, this topic is becoming a more widely known issue and more people are standing up for equal rights today.

Policy Solutions
Gender inequality has been an ongoing issue for many years despite the changes being made to legislations there are still improvements to be made. In 1922 they won the right to vote in all provinces and in 1929 women were finally recognized as “humans”. The fact that women were not considered human beings is baffling. During WW2 women took over the workforce as the men were forced to go to war, this was this start of women being in the workplace. In 1951 Ontario started tackling the wage gap with the Fair Employment Practices Act as well as the Female Employees Fair Remuneration Act. These two acts started implementing fines to end discrimination in the workplace, they also created a complaint system and led the federal government to pass other acts. These other acts were the Canadian Fair Employment Practices Act of 1953 which was applied to civil service, the Female Employees Equal Pay Act of 1956 was an act that was making the wage discrimination of sex against the law; and the Employment Equality Act of 1986 federally regulated employees and requires employers to identify/eliminate barriers that limit employment opportunities. As of right now only two provinces in Canada have proactive pay equality laws that cover both the private and the public sector, those provinces are Quebec and Ontario. As of 2016, women make 73.5 cents for every dollar that a man makes. According to the Ontario Human Rights Commission, 10-15%  of the wage gap is due to discrimination even though in 1987 the Ontario Pay Equity Act was placed to prevent the wage gap due to discrimination. There are three provinces that have no pay legislation; those provinces are Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and Newfoundland. Alberta is the province that has the widest wage gap with no pay equity or pay equity legislation. Ontario is working towards closing the wage gap by addressing specific issues such as shared parental leaves, a gender workplace analysis tool, getting more social awareness and reviewing the pay equity legislation.

Theoretical Solution
Gender inequality has been one of the longest standing issues of human history. Gender has always categorized by male, female profiling. Gender has evolved to many other categories that are black and white to others. Theoretically approaching the issue of gender inequality opens your eyes to the potential individuals who have been left out of this situation. Speaking about gender inequality, most of us think of Male and Female. Our world has been based around male and female so those are the only two types of genders that come to mind when being spoken of. Years ago, Male and female were the only known gender that people were identified by. Although nowadays gender has evolved and has been accepted to be various types of genders, most identify with the LGBTQ+2 communities. The individuals of these communities are being left out of the spectrum when talking about gender as a whole. Everything is based around two genders when no one speaks of the other genders who are not being included in gender identification. Gender is open nowadays, and isn’t based on what you were born as. Gender is now based on what you with to be and who you are comfortable being. When taking such a narrow viewpoint and opening up to more of a broad variety of genders, it will also bring on more complications. Gender identification is something that will always be changing throughout the years which leaves the potential for not including one of the unknown genders. An approach people could take about this issue is offering an attempt to shift the language in which we speak of gender inequality by bringing education to those who are black and white to the many other genders there are in the world. In reference to the recent Canadian federal government islamophobia legislation proposal, they punish Canadians by law for speaking in certain ways about members of the Islamic community that I think the same should be done for the gender communities. Christina speaks on behalf of the policy approach of gender equality. She speaks of gender and male and female only. She is politically incorrect in the way she speaks of gender due to the fact of their being many other genders other than male and female that she fails to speak towards. Theoretically, Punishing someone for not being educated on the topic of gender, and speaking poorly of the genders who are not yet identified, may decrease the number of individuals who discriminate. Overall, including all genders in the spectrum.

Ethics
When looking at women’s rights, it is essential to see that certain groups are excluded. The most noticeable group would be the LGBTQ+ community. Many who identify within this group don’t gain anything like other women do. While women’s movements get so much awareness and media coverage, this leaves awareness of the those in the LGBTQ+ community behind. In an article about the challenges of the LGBTQ+ community in the workplace,“[Members] hide their private lives from colleagues and clients for fear of homophobia, exclusion or in case they are overlooked for valuable promotions.”Women’s rights movements don’t help bridge the gap between heterosexual workers and homosexual and trans workers. The only real positive bridge within this issue is the men in the LGBTQ+ community that are advocating for their rights.

The number of women are largely disproportionate to the amount of those in the LGBTQ+ community. This creates a divide between those who identify with both of these groups.It also contributes to the amount of homophobia within that community and doesn’t help eliminate it. . When it comes to problems such as the wage gap and the glass ceiling where do trans women fit in? Would they get paid as much as their biological gender, or what they identify as? Questions such as these create an issue in the community about awareness. Most people aren’t aware of the issues surrounding this community. Now there isn't just the gender inequality between men and women, but there is an issue between women and people who identify with the LGBTQ+ community

As mentioned in the theoretical solution, the way people speak about the community should change. It is unethical to stop people from slandering other minority groups but leaving out lose who are not heterosexual. Just as students are taught to respect different ethnicities but not about different gender’s. There is slightly more awareness through LGBTQ+ groups within schools and specific days dedicated to them. But, their rights are not as frequently brought to light as women’s rights.

Conclusion
People have been fighting for gender equality for a century, beginning with the first wave of feminism which women fought to be recognized as citizens. Once that was achieved woman began to fight for the right to work outside of their homes after men returned from war and reclaimed their jobs. The second wave focused on women's reproductive rights such as the release of the birth control pill. Now, in the third wave, women of colour are fighting for their opinions to be recognized. Although women have, and are still making gains to come out of oppression, the threat of backlash is all too real. Since women have started fighting back incidents of sexism, racism, and sexual and physical violence such as rape and assault have increased. One thing that hasn't been considered in all these movements is that there are more than two genders (male and female), society consists of multiple genders which are classified as LGBT+2. The LGBT+2 community has begun to speak up about their rights and opinions as human beings and law abiding citizens. The LGBT+2 community are working towards a world that has no stigma or negative thoughts around people that don't identify as male or female. Gender inequality is still a large concern within our society today and we should all keep fighting for equality among all genders.