Women's Rights

January 1, 1975

Many more tools are now available to women in their ongoing battle for economic and social equality.

Fair employment and equal pay legislation have been passed, at both the federal and provincial level. Every province has a human rights code which outlaws discrimination on the basis of sex.

Women's equality is accepted in law and theory, if not always in practice:

Women are entering the workforce in record numbers, but their wages lag behind those of men, even for the same work or work of equal value.

A number of traditionally male sectors of the workforce, such as construction, firefighting and police work, still remain off-limits.

Most managers and senior executives are men. Women are penalized for taking time off to have babies. Women are joining the legal and medical professions in large numbers, but still bump up against the "glass ceiling" - traditional stereotypes and "old boys" networks which limit their ability to advance at the same pace as men.