Juan Pablo Benavides

Kevin Torres
Juan Carlos García
Karen Hernández

GENDER DIVERSITY IN
CANADA
“Gender diversity is the representation of people of different genres, that is, it
refers to the way in which men and women are included in a fair proportion in a
common social environment without excluding people of different genres”. (Ahmed,
2006).
In addition, we are certain that gender equality or diversity is based on respect
for how we accept the other as mentioned in his book Harold Andrew Patrick and
Vincent Raj Kumar "means understanding that each individual is unique and
recognizing our individual differences" (Patrick, 2012). So, as the authors point out,
this can be along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation,
socioeconomic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs or
other ideologies
In relation to this we would like to point out that although the study of gender
and diversity concepts has increased gender equality at present the problems with
gender diversity is presented in all environments from social to the political and
economic sphere.
Now, it is important talk about the history of Canada in terms of gender
diversity. Throughout the years, Canada has had different groups of women who
have fought for their rights, and have been successful, so much so that nowadays
Canada is one of the first countries to have gender equity in terms of work, politics
and culturally. the most important group that was created in Canada was called
"the famous five women" in 1929 and was the most important group because
thanks to them women began to consider themselves as people over the law.
before this achievement women were considered almost as an object for society.
(Government of Canada, 2016)
In the 1960s, new social movements such as feminism and currents of people
in defense of civil rights, are sustained from the paradigm of difference and the
development of identity policies, decisive elements also in the promotion of equality
Juan Pablo Benavides
Kevin Torres
Juan Carlos García
Karen Hernández

policies of opportunities or affirmative action for minorities and women in Canada

(Nash, 2001).
Turning to main idea of this paper the problems of gender diversity in the
workplace have been the subject of discussion for years and Canada is one of the
pioneer countries in trying to reduce this inequality gap in each of its citizens,
regardless of the gender with which they feel identified.
Here it is important to bear in mind that as mentioned by Hunt and Rayside
(2007) one of the problems that occurs in Canada in relation to differences in work
diversity and of course within the category of gender diversity are the salary
differences between men and women, and the issue of unionized and non-
unionized workers where they explain that the highest salary, benefits and working
conditions of unionized workers are not the same as those who are not members
of a union and most non-unionized workers are women (pp.3-10).
In addition, in the international area, Canada was one of the first countries to
ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women, which set international standards to eliminate gender discrimination. As
part of the Canada's nation commitment to this convention, Canada must submit a
report to the United Nations every four years about how it has worked to further
the rights of women (United Nations, 2009).
However, in every government that has gone through Canada, something like
the administration of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who took office in 2015 has not
been seen, which allowed women to occupy the same number of positions as men
in the cabinet, an equivalence of atypical gender in the rest of the world.
Since then, the Ontario Prime Minister, Kathleen Wynne, has introduced a bill
that aims to close the wage gap between male and female workers in that
province, since statistics show that the wage gap has remained stagnant in the last
10 years and women earn approximately 30 percent less than men (Brizuela,
2018).
We might add that the Ontario Strategy for Women's Economic Empowerment
seeks to have all publicly announced job offers include a rate or salary range, while
Juan Pablo Benavides
Kevin Torres
Juan Carlos García
Karen Hernández

prohibiting employers from asking about past compensations and retaliating

against employees who do.
In conclusion, it can be said that Canada is a country that has fought for gender
equality and is an example to follow for many nations, This can be seen in the
annual ranking of the World Economic Forum on gender disparities where Canada
is in the first 20 positions of more than 200 countries. Women have reached great
achievements after their tireless struggle and we dare to say that in 10 years the
gender difference will not be a problem for developed countries like Canada, and
will be an example that countries like Colombia should follow. In addition and as
evidence that Canada continues to fight against gender disparity not only in its
territory but also internationally, it encourages a program called Women's Voices
and Leadership that aims to respond to the needs of local women's organizations
in countries on the road to development that are working to advance the rights of
women and girls and promote gender equality.

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Ahmed, S. (2006). Doing Diversity. Retrieved From

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2304/pfie.2006.4.2.96

Brizuela, L. (2018). Canada: Greater representation of women, but there are pending
issues. retrieved from http://www.amecopress.net/spip.php?article17515
Juan Pablo Benavides
Kevin Torres
Juan Carlos García
Karen Hernández

Government of Canada. (2016). Rights of women. Retrieved March 1, 2019, from

https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/rights-women.html

Hunt, G., & Rayside, D. (2007). Equity, Diversity & Canadian Labour. LONDON, CANADA:
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Fromhttps://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2158244012444615

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