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SHIRIEY CARR: WCMEN IN THE LABCIJR FORCE "ARE WE AWARE OF GJR ASSETS?" Lecture #3 by Susan Satterthwaite and Joann leaks

Ch March 12, 1980,. Shirley Carr, the executive Vice-President of the Canadian labour Cmgress, spoke on woren in the labour force; she asked , are we aware of Our assets? According to Ms. Carr, equality does not just mean equal pay for equal work, but that a job is there and women should be able to apply and be hired for it on the basis of what they know and can do, and not on the basis of how pretty‘they are. Nor should they be rejected because they are wcmen. Practices of a discrimin— atory nature exist in society for both men and wcmen. For example, men are treated in the labour force as if they Eli have no children, whereas women are treated as if, they all hale children. This shows a marked lack of consider- ation for familial res— ponsibilities on the part of both. No one «ever thinks that men might want to stay have with the children. Women on the other hand, are always

emted to stay hone With

Presently, it is illegal to discriminate between the sexes on the basis of equal pay for equal work. However, the discrimination still goes on, due to the variations used in defining each particular job. (The same job is defined one way for the men perfonning it and another way for the wunen, so that the wcmen will end up being paid less for work of equal value, but with a different name.

Ms. Carr believes that the only solution in ccmbating inequalities such as these

is for individuals, especially

woven, to form a' strong union. The assets of women

are their power and influence, and they can use these assets

to affect changes in the inferior way society treats

them. The unions are pushing

fer-equal pay for work of equal value; day care; and

affimative action, but still

society at large (business and government in particular)

h have not done anything to bring Home]: of his children.

about changes along these lines for wanen. The unions have also pushed for maternity leave for wanen

III-IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

v status is that of her

s

(until recently, a woven was generally laid off permanently or fired when it was learned that she was pregnant ) and have gotten it, although it is . at this time, without pay.

Women are often told that they should not be working as they are taking jobs , away from men. As Ms. Carr states, if we withdrew all the women workers in this country, the country would collapse. Every hand is needed to keep this country going. This is not to say that there is anything wrong with being a hatenaker. Being a hananaker is a noble job, and no one should condemn it. Honever, women and men must realize that there is more to life than just hcmenaking. There is something else "out there" for them and they have every right to take the opportunity to do it, be it a job, a career, a hobby or just taking time for yourself. Change” in order to work, mu'st be for both sides. Change is good for wunen and men together and together is how we must work in order to bring rightful equality to our ,

' * society .

********************§******

It has often been said to us that we are imagining

many of the incidents of dis—

crimination and the inferiOr

-.— - — -

ENTI‘N LABOURFORC

.- wcmen are paid less

attitudes toward women of which

we write. It has been said that wanen haven't had it better, that feminists

are making up all the in— equality stuff, that we are picking at trivial points (like using titles of Mrs. & Miss, or wanen being paid 50¢ less an hour than men for the exact same work), that there may be a little inequality, but nothing to make such a fuss over, that there is no discrimination, or that "it doesn't matter ' if there is any, because it's never affected me". We would like to give you just a sampling of the cannon attitudes toward wanen and the kind of image Women have today, ‘ as well as sane of the abuses they suffer be— cause of it. We hope

this will give you some food fer thought in the future:

— a wonan's fundamental

usband's wife, the - a woman's greatest

asset is her beauty. — wcnen's talk is all

. . _ . ..... .. in-..“ --._i\.... _‘“.;.~.~ »

THE UPELSUN, Thursday, March 27, 1980, page 19

THE FEMININE PERSPECTIVE

and clean and sit around all day,

- housework isn't con- sidered work.

-- warren are only inter- ested in trapping sane man. — the sole duty of ' a woman is to make a man content and happy through- out his life.

- a marriage license is more attractive to wanen than a university degree. - wanen are blamed, put on trial and treated as criminals when they are raped .

- women like to be raped. The list is virtually endless. Is this what we

E

— women are the last hired and first fired.

than men for work of equal Value.

- intelligent wanen

are emasculating.

— most women are not unionized and therefore have no protection against exploitation

in employment.

- it's a woman's duty to make herself attractive.

- wcmen who stay hcme to keep house and care for children are called "non-working mothers" . — working women are un—

feminine. ' want as wcmen? Is this - most of the poor elderly how wcmen should be are wcmen. considered? Should women

— women should be struck regularly, like gongs.

allow this kind of image of them to exist? We

- wcmen are degraded and think notll On this devalued through pornog— note, we‘d like to close raphy. - this year's

- all wcmen do is cook FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE. . .

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