What does gender discrimination mean?

Gender discrimination, which exists in workplaces, is based on beliefs and prejudices in society that can influence behaviours in ways that aren’t necessarily conscious or intentional.

Even today, these beliefs and prejudices can have an impact on how wages for female jobs are determined.

Gender discrimination contributes to the wage gap between men and women. In 1996, the Pay Equity Act was adopted with the aim of correcting wage differences due to gender discrimination.

Stereotypes and prejudices related to female jobs

Women have been active on the labour market for decades. A 100 years ago, women most often held jobs that were an extension of their traditional roles in the home, such as nurse, cook or seamstresse. Over time, certain skills or characteristics came to be strongly associated with either female or male jobs.

Characteristics often associated with female jobs

• Empathy (nurse)
• Courtesy (receptionist)
• Dexterity (seamstress)
• Organizational skills (secretary)

Characteristics often associated with male jobs

• Strength (mover)
• Physical stamina (construction worker)
• Leadership (bank manager)

Why are there wage gaps?

Stereotypes about the role of women and prejudices about the value of their work have negatively influenced their remuneration. This bias has resulted in lower wages for jobs commonly held by women when compared to jobs commonly held by men.

The closer a task is to those performed in the home or family, the lower their value in the eyes of society. Therefore, qualities that have mostly been associated with female jobs have been devalued because they are considered to be related to the role of women in the home. This bias has resulted in lower wages for female jobs.

Society also long held the view that a man should be paid more than a woman because he had to support his family. A woman's wages were considered a supplement to the household income, but not essential.

Assessing the value of jobs to combat gender discrimination

To combat gender discrimination, the Pay Equity Act requires employers to use a method to assess job categories. This assessment focuses on the requirements of the job categories, not on the people doing those jobs.

The employer must examine all of the characteristics of these jobs in order to verify whether jobs deemed equivalent are paid equally. The assessment focuses on objective factors. These factors may include:

• qualifications
• responsibilities
• efforts
• working conditions

These factors make it possible to assess all aspects of jobs. Thus, the characteristics of female jobs will be taken into account in the assessment of jobs, and their fair value will be determined.

Assessing jobs makes it possible to correct the wage differences between female jobs and male jobs of the same value.