By Silvana
The gender pay gap is that on average in work industries, women only make 77 cents of a dollar that a man makes. However the reason for this gap isn’t very clear, but there are a few possible reason, namely the maternity leave. Any parent can take shared parental leave (SPL), such as the mother, father or the mother’s spouse or partner, including civil partners or same gender partners. If both parents meet the qualifying conditions, they can both choose to take one or they may decide that only one parent will. Some men take maternity leave if the woman has a higher paying job. Then it’s called the paternity leave. Usually only women take the leave because in some provinces or states, companies pay women for their leave, but not men. According to an article by Princeton University "women are most likely to leave their job force after their first child, not later births." Another study found that “mothers were much more likely to move to part-time employment once they had a child and the ones who did return to work experienced career stagnation with a lower chance of getting a promotion.” And a survey done by the Pew Research Center found 42 % of mothers with some work experience said they had reduced their work hours in order to care for a family member, but only 28 % of fathers said the same. And 39 % of mothers said they had taken a significant amount of time off from work in order to care for a family member compared with 24 % of men. Solutions Now that we know the problem, I’ve worked up some solutions. To encourage more girls to get jobs, once a year, one weekend there could be a national festival where girls ages 5-17 could meet professionals and learn about their careers to inspire them to get good careers. A lot of offices and work companies have one or two sick days every now and then, but they also pay women on how many hours they spend at work. But since women are so occupied for their families, they don’t get paid as much since they need to take off so many hours for family duties. So my idea is we can give women with children extra sick days so they can take care of their families and to take care of their mental health. Now we’ve come to the second problem. When a woman marries a man they usually take the man's last name or occasionally keep their last name, but also hyphenate the man's last name. Of course this isn’t always the case: Muslim and Middle Eastern women usually keep their last names, but their children still take the man’s and for Latino people, they are born with two last names until they choose one when they come of age. Then if they get married and then have children, the child will take both of their last names, or in Quebec, where instead of the main option after marriage is taking your husband's last name, it’s to get a highfination between the two of them. If a couple ever has kids, it either occasionally gets hyphenated between the two, or the child takes the man's last name even though the woman gave birth to it. There is absolutely no reason why this rule still exists. It's not like it’s the 19th century and women aren’t considered people. In Alberta it actually isn’t mandatory for a woman to change her last name, in fact the man can even take her last name or they can hyphenate their names. One day I asked my mother, “How come I took dad’s last name instead of yours?” And she replied, “Because it wasn’t really important to me whose last name you took.” So it is 100 % possible for a woman’s husband and children to take her last name, but the problem is a lot of girls don’t know/on’t think it matters. In 7th grade I was partnered with my friend Alexa and we were discussing gender equality. Alexa then told me that she personally was okay with taking her husband's last name. But if her husband's last name was ridiculous like Shermy, she would of course keep her last name. So this info somewhat helps with the solution. When a couple gets married they could be reminded that there is an equal chance of a boy taking a girl's last name as a girl taking a boy’s last name. In conclusion, there is still a lot of work to be done to stop gender inequality, but still we are making good progress. A lot of people think gender equality is solved because girls and boys go to the same schools together, they can vote, and they don’t have to be accompanied by a man wherever they go. Women aren’t shot, they aren’t assaulted and they aren’t forced to marry. Although Canada has some of the best gender equality, it doesn’t yet have the best. But we’re making good progress. Keep on treating everyone with respect then soon, we will have gender equality. Read more: Book Reviews
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