Well, we have a Harper government for 2 years and this is what we get, 4 points behind the USA, unfuckingbelievable, but yet not so much either.
Quote:
Canada has plunged 13 spots in a global "gender gap index" and has fallen behind
the United States in the battle to narrow the gap between men and women in areas
such as income, education, health and political participation.Canada now stands 31st out of 130 countries analysed by the Geneva-based
World Economic Forum, which started producing its world global gender gap index
in 2006.The U.S. moved up four spots to 27th place, marking the first time it has
ranked ahead of Canada.
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/story.html?id=a819af3c-1d2b-4d63-842...
From what I have read, a national day care program, wage parity, access to post secondary education for everyone, unpaid work is viewed as income and valued as such, are some of the factors.
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"watching the tide roll away"
What is it that the Scandinavian countries are doing right? They've been at the top of the list for years. Forgive me my ignorance...but do they have some type of policies in place that mandate that women must make up a certain percentage in the workplace?
Because the reality is most Canadian men don't want it to happen, they enjoy their male hegemony too much, and thus will not support actions towards these endeavors.
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"watching the tide roll away"
Why is it so hard to implement these things in Canada? I mean, I know it depends on who is in government, but why would such goals not be adopted by ALL parties here? From what I understand, even the more right-wing parties in the Scandinavian countries support the majority of these progressive policies and initiatives.
Yeah, well...where are all the progressive men?
I don't think Scandinavian men as a whole are that enthusiastic about gender equality either. But the women's movement in these countries has spent a long time lobbying the various parties and making sure they knew that many women's votes would be lost if they didn't come onside proposals such as equal salaries, gov't-funded daycare services & the fight against sexual exploitation and trafficking by criminalizing the buying of sexual services - ideas that many men discreetly opposed, but that political parties were compelled to adopt under constant pressure by women's organizations.
It also helps to have multiple political parties, where the Left isn't demonized by all the media and sometimes manages to get elected or obtain the balance of power.
Having ONE party adopt such goals would be a good start. There ain't none.
True.
I guess I'm just not old enough to be cynical...yet. Wait until I hit 30, though.
Excellent point Martin, and here is a further info and link on this for Sweden.
http://www.justicewomen.com/cj_sweden.html
I will note it took the government to educate the police and justice system peoples into realizing it is violence against women.
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"watching the tide roll away"
Excellent point. We have too many people in Canada who view government involvement as something to be feared.
Thanks for the interesting read, as well.