Gender Inequality in Wage Earnings in Canada Essay

Introduction

Gender pay gap has been in existence for many years in Canada. The struggle over pay equity has been an intriguing debate in the field of economy. Consequently, many articles, books and theories have been developed due to this struggle. Chiefly, gender pay gap develops from some characteristics on the labor market which influence the male and female labour force in making decisions. In summary, Socialization, statistical discrimination, full versus part time work, family life, human capital formation and training records are the major courses of gender pay gap in Canada.

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Characteristics and causes of gender inequality in wage earnings in Canada

Gender roles are created by the school, media, family and church in the modern Western society. These roles mandate men to be not only fathers, but also providers to their wives and children. On the other hand, women are seen to be better with children and hence, they are expected to do more housework (William, 2013, p. 435). As a result, socialization in this sense depicts men and women different and hence the differing pays.

Human capital formation is another cause of gender pay gap in Canada. Despite the fact that both men and women have equal level of education in many cases, the field of study makes the earnings different. As a result, women take up different jobs as compared to men. Also, the perspective of women and men towards their work is different (William, 2013, p. 350). Women tend to view their work with more emphasis on issues like job satisfaction as opposed to pay.

Statistical discrimination comes into play when employers view men as more productive as they have a higher tendency of continuity in work than women. More often than not, when women are faced by the dilemma of work versus family, the choose family at the expense of work. Consequently, they prefer part time employment to full time employment in order to support family life. These factors greatly influence the gender pay gap as experienced in Canada.

Medicalization

In the current society, genetics and biology are major forces that significantly affect human life. In this view, medicalization is one of the major components of the modern bionic society, with social factors having a minor contribution. Medicalizazation is the process in which some of the aspects of human life are seen as a sickness that requires medical attention (Maturo, 2012). As a result, a none-medical issue is not only defined in medical terms, but also the use of medical framework to solve it comes into play (Conrad, 1992). As a result, many aspects of women lives have been medicalized. These aspects include pregnancy, childbirth, menstruation, menopause and pre-menstrual syndrome and they all lower life expectancy in women.

Men lower their life expectancy through engaging in more risky jobs than women, their high mortality rate at any stage of life compared to women and their lower preference to seek medical attention (William, 2013, p. 521). For this reason, women tend to live longer than men though they have higher chances of getting diseases and disabilities.

Biological limits to equality between the genders

Gender equality can be defined as equal responsibilities, rights and opportunities accorded to both men and women in the society. Also, recognition off the diversity between these two different groups in terms of needs, interests and priorities should be taken into consideration (William, 2013, p. 395). However, realization of gender equality is not an easy thing to do in the society. There exist biological limitations to equality between the genders.

Biological differences exist between females and males which are far beyond the obvious macro level. These differences have implications on susceptibility to certain diseases and metabolizes to different medication. Additionally, there exists a difference between "sex" and "gender". Sex is the biological characteristics that are distinctive in both male and females while gender refers to characteristics that are social and cultural which are either feminine or masculine. Males and female are different in many aspects (William, 2013, p. 520). These aspects include body chemistry, behavior and anatomy.

Social inequality exists in many societies. Gender gap denotes that women face severe restrictions on the basis of basic health outcomes amongst other factors. These restrictions are more dominant in some professions as compared to others. For instance, maternal disruption may break the continuity of work for a woman. Women face a challenge of breaking from work during pregnancy, childbirth and the consequent child care (William, 2013, p. 405). The productivity of women is highly affected and hence most employers see men as more productive than women.

In a nutshell, gender gap in wages continues to increase on the basis of biological limitations. It exists in ways such as gender discrimination in hiring and remuneration. Despite the fact that discrimination on the basis of gender is unconstitutional in Canada, women and men do not receive the same salary. Furthermore, women will tend to seek more flexible employment opportunities where job satisfaction and status is more vital than remuneration. As a result, women end receiving low pay as compared to men.

Media story: The fear of losing culture

The Fear of losing Culture is a story that was published in the Toronto Star newspaper that discusses how traditions and cultures are retained beyond generation immigrants. In the story, the writer defines culture as more than just clothing and food. It entails a peoples mindset and once way to explore the world. In the story, Uzma Jalaluddin wonders if his children would ever know their parents culture back in India. She wonders if some cultural elements such as clothing and food will ever be known to her children. The story shows the great question the second generation immigrants in Canada try to answer (Jalaluddin, 2018). The fear of losing once culture in a new culture is one of the greatest fears they face.

This story is relevant to sociologists in many ways. First of all, the definition of the term culture is clearly denoted in the story. Culture is defined as different ways people think and how they adopt to the world. Also, culture entails the material artifacts and beliefs that are held by a society. Secondly, the story relates to sociology as it shows that biology does not necessarily determine human experience, in that once cultural mindset dictates how one responds and interacts with the world. Furthermore, it shows that culture is dynamic. It clearly shows that the contemporary culture is dynamic and it has blended with other cultures worldwide.

Statistical Data: how job flexibility affect gender pay gap

Worldwide, women tend to prefer more flexible jobs to allow them perform additional responsibilities that's comes with motherhood. As a result, they end up having less pay as compared to men. Similarly, the work continuity faces many disruptions from pregnancies as women go for mertanity leaves (Ortiz-Ospina, 2018). The production of women significantly decreases compared to that of women.

In the past decades, pharmacy was the highly paid female-profession. This is because there were technological changes that made the profession more flexible and hence more convenient for women. The data below shows the increase in female wages in pharmacy in relation to other professions for the period 1970-2010 in the United States (Ortiz-Ospina, 2018).

It is undeniable that women seek jobs that are more flexible, including full-time jobs. These professions allow them to earn as they attend to family responsibility and rear children (Blau, 1996). As a result, women are expected to be more flexible at their job more than their male counter parts. This flexibility ranges from shifting hours to rearrangements of shifts which allow women accommodate and attend to emergencies that may arise from their gender roles as mothers. Furthermore, the above data proofs that policies that are family-friendly is one of the great contributors to narrowing gender pay gap in Canada (Ortiz-Ospina, 2018). These jobs will allow women not only to go back at their place of work after giving birth, but also take time off to attend to family duties.

References

Blau, F. (1996). The Gender Pay Gap. doi:10.3386/w5664

Charness, G., & Kuhn, P. (2005). Pay Inequality, Pay Secrecy, and Effort: Theory and Evidence. doi:10.3386/w11786

Conrad, P. (1992). Medicalization and Social Control. Annual Review of Sociology, 18(1), 209-232. doi:10.1146/annurev.so.18.080192.001233

Jalaluddin, U. (2018, March 1). The fear of losing culture. The Star [Toronto].

Maturo, A. (2012). Medicalization: Current concept and future directions in a Bionic Society. Mens Sana Monographs, 10(1), 122. doi:10.4103/0973-1229.91587

Ortiz-Ospina, E. (2018, February 19). Why is there a gender pay gap? Retrieved September 20, 2018, from https://ourworldindata.org/what-drives-the-gender-pay-gap#note-7

William, L. (2013). Introduction to Sociology - 2nd Canadian Edition. Retrieved from http://solr.bccampus.ca:8001/bcc/file/6140c265-61a6-455b-80b8-6ec8fcdf5a48/1/Introduction-to-Sociology-2nd-Canadian-Edition-1520305132.html#chapter-9-social-inequality-in-canada