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Inequalities for Women in the Labour Market

In: Historical Events

Submitted By glamorous187
Words 1779
Pages 8
Women today are expected to be loving mothers, domesticated wives, educated career women and still obliged to provide for their families. However, with the demand and focus for highly regarded, high paying careers being dominated by men within society women are unable to break free and prove their capabilities as successful working class individuals as easily as their male counterparts. The obstacles that many women face today limit working women’s ability to enhance their current skills and make it extremely difficult for them to excel in the workforce. With the expectation to balance and multitask work as well as the domestic responsibilities, the same skills that allow women to take on so much are in fact the same factors that hold them back from any advancement within the labour market.

According to Krahn, Lowe and Hughes, authors of Work, Industry and Canadian Society (2008), women find themselves seeking refuge in employment facilities with “little economic security and little opportunity for advancement; furthermore the work is often unpleasant, boring and sometimes physically taxing” (p.187). It often forces the female population to strictly seek jobs in the service sector assigned to them based on gender alone. Women have been stereotyped into being domesticated labourers due to the double standard. Women in Canada also face the problem of earning significantly less than their male counterparts. Editors of Dividing the Domestic: men, women, and household work in cross-national perspective, Treas and Drobnic (2010) claim, “despite the increasing number of women in the labor market, women still have fewer managerial positions and earn less income than men” (p.44). Joan Williams author of Beyond The Maternal Wall: Relief For Family Caregivers Who Are Discriminated Against On The Job (2003) refers to this theory as “the glass ceiling”. The male dominancy

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