GENDER EQUITY

• Is the process of being fair to women and men. To ensure fairness, measures must often be available to compensate for historical and social disadvantages that prevent women and men from otherwise operating on a level playing field. Equity leads to equality.

• Gender equity is a set of actions, attitudes, and assumptions that provide opportunities and create expectations about individuals. In our definition of gender equity, gender is never separate from race, ethnicity, language, disability, income, or other diversities that define us as human beings. It offers a framework for educational reform in which all females and males

• are engaged, reflective learners, regardless of the subject

• are prepared for future education, jobs, careers, and civic participation

• set and meet high expectations for themselves and others

• develop as respectful, inclusive, and productive individuals, friends, family members, workers, and citizens

• receive equitable treatment and achieve equitable outcomes in school and beyond

Gender Equality in Canada• Although women in Canada are outnumbering

men in terms of educational attainment at secondary and university level, they still face a glass ceiling in the labour market and higher tertiary level. Canada has a relatively high participation rate of women in the labour market, and there are increasingly more women employed full-time (courtesy of chid-care policies and maternity leave provisions) but this has not translated in equality in pay. With one of the largest wage gaps between men and women amongst OECD countries, women in Canada are still far from reaching equality in the workplace.

Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value• Ontario has legislation called the Pay Equity Act to ensure that

women and men receive equal pay for performing jobs that may be very different but are of equal value.

• The Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA), on the other hand, has provisions that ensure women and men receive equal pay for performing substantially the same job. That is, they are entitled to receive equal pay for "equal work", meaning work that is substantially the same, requiring the same skill, effort and responsibility and performed under similar working conditions in the same establishment.

• According to the ESA, a woman cannot be paid less than a man if she is doing "equal work." This also applies in reverse; a man cannot receive less pay than a woman if he is doing "equal work."

Preferential Hiring Policies• Is a job policy that favors the hiring of qualified

applicants from certain target group that are underrepresented in the work place

• A Preferential Hiring job competition gives preference to one or more of the designated groups (Designated group members, as defined in the Employment

• Equity Act and Federal Contractors Program, are those who are aboriginal peoples, members of visible minorities, persons with disabilities, or women.)

• A Limited Hiring job competition is limited to one or more of the designated groups

• Some critics argue that they amount to reverse discrimination and are unfair to qualifies who cannot be considered for some positions.

• Reverse discrimination is discrimination against members of a dominant or majority group or in favor of members of a minority or historically disadvantaged group. This discrimination may seek to redress social inequalities where minority groups have been denied access to the same privileges of the majority group.

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