Employment Equity For Women: An Important And Complex Demand

BY LOUISE BOIVIN

There are two principal reason for the failure of equal pay for work of equal value in Québec: the persistent sexual segregation of occupations, and the limits of judicial enforcement.

Continued segregation (or gettoisation) of women in low paying employment facilitates discriminatory practices by employers who evoke the lesser value of occupations in which women are concentrated. As for legal enforcement in Québec the burden of the proof rests with the workers themselves or with their union. In other words, the subtle and pervasive sexism that influenced the establishment of wages in the first place is unassumed and must be proven.

In 1986 the Québec government authorized employment equity programs. But most of them, save those in government ministries or organizations, are based on voluntary compliance and, again, the burden of proof lies with the worker. Also, employers are extremely reluctant to openly negotiate the terms of their equal access programs. But these programs do not address the devaluation of work performed by women, which is tied to an idea of female work as free and voluntary. Employers underestimate or deny the professional qualifications of women, or treat them as "natural" aptitudes that need not be remunerated. It is necessary therefore, to also enforce pay equity and to recognize the real value of work traditionally performed by women.

Equal access programs, then, are necessary to ensure equitable hiring, promotion and training practices while enforced pay equity has broader implications and attacks directly the under-valuation of women's work. But the traditional sexism of the job market will not be eliminated until women themselves become vigilant in ensuring all objectives are met.