Gender Equality in Canada

Canada is among the countries in the world where women’s rights are respected and upheld. Out of the 145 countries in the world examined by the world economic forum, Canada ranked 30th. As per the 2015 Global Gender Report, with the rest of the world having 118 years to go before women and men are paid equally, Canada has only 47 and half years to attain such feet given that the pace towards gender equality is maintained. The report indicates that the country has made tremendous steps towards achieving equality in the society. The paper seeks to examine how Canada has progressed in regards to gender equality with the aim of establishing where the country is as at now and more needs to be done to attain equality among genders in the society.

Another step came in the form of voting rights (Marsden, 2012). Before 1916, women were not allowed to vote in both the federal and provincial elections. Saskatchewan and Manitoba permitted women to vote in the provincial elections. Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario followed in 1917. In 1917 also, Canada passed the Wartime Elections Act, allowing the military women and the women who had male relatives taking part in the First World War to vote. Questions have however been raised about whether efficiency goals and gender equality are compatible. For example research by Razavi (2017) and Esquivel (2017) showed that gender inequality when it comes to wages may be good for economic growth as gender equality and growth are to some extend incompatible. Doss (2017), while arguing against the use of efficiency argument to promote gender equality, argues that low-income country which is depended on agriculture have proved that men are more efficient in using resources than women and their giving women equal resources as men will likely lead to inefficiency.

With the view of this, Canadian feminists and gender equality activists have been able to make several huge steps towards gender equality. Justin Trudeau showed the recent example of steps towards gender equality, the prime minister whom a self-declared feminist. Despite so much progress over the years, there still much work to do to attain full gender equality in the country. Women are still economically, politically and socially sidelined in Canada. Income inequality is among the leading inequality as shown by the wage gap between the genders. The income inequality and discrimination is also indicated by the fact that those who engage in illegitimate economic activities such as prostitution are majorly women. According to Fedec (2002), women engage in prostitution because they are poor and underprivileged because they need money to pay their own and their family bills.