Women in the 21st Century

Society is constantly changing, sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse, and different country’s society’s change at different paces, and some don’t change at all. For some countries, their society will change entirely, for everyone, and for some, their society will change for only one race, or one gender. In Canada, specifically, society and the way the country operated changed for women drastically between 1914 and 2004.

Canadians had learned to accept women for their gender, and accept that they had the ability to perform tasks that men could. In Canada’s society, people viewed women different politically, socially, and environmentally when the 20th century began. Some things, however, didn’t change at all for women, and these things are what they still struggle with today. The status and value of women has changed significantly due to the catastrophic events of the Great Wars. During the war, women became the primary bread winners of the family while the men went out to war.

It was the first time in Canadian history that women were eligible to work in factories to support the war effort. Women were able to vote on behalf of their fathers and husbands that fought in the Great War. Judge Emily Murphy became the first female judge of Canada in 1916, appointed by the British Government. The role of a judge was predominantly a male job that held a high status in society. Women were starting to get political job opportunities as women fought for gender equality.

Emily Murphy became a beacon of hope for gender equality as she was one of the Famous Five. It wasn’t until the end of the century that a female earned the role of prime minister. Kim Campbell became the first female Canadian prime minister in 1993. During her time served as prime minister, she amended the criminal code to better suit laws regarding firearms and sexual assault. Since the beginning to the First World War to present day, women have earned a position as equals in the political scope.

Socially, women began to be more accepted by their families at home, as well as when working, and when outside of their homes. At home, instead of women only cooking and cleaning, they began to do jobs that required more effort and skill. Women were allowed to be educated and receive an education, meaning that they were able to work, and replace a man’s role in a workplace environment. For example, during the Second World War, when men had to enlist in the war, women replaced their jobs in the workplace in the meantime.

While at war, women worked in factories to sew and provide for the war, as supplies from Canada were sent to where the war was taking place. Environmentally, women began to be more widely accepted, especially as the 21st century rolled around. During the 21st century, women were still faced with gender discrimination in the workplace. Women in the 21st century are still faced with a glass ceiling, and are not offered the same positions as men are, and are also not paid as much as men are for doing the same positions as them.

Furthermore, environmentally, women were faced with a lack of rights to their gender entirely. In the late 1900s, women finally began to fight for equality in Canada, and created many organizations in order to do so. As a whole, women began to be recognized around the world and in Canada especially for their movements to become known, and treated equally. As you can see, people in the 20th century, many people believed that women couldn’t perform the same way that men could, nor qualify for the jobs that men could.

Furthermore, many believed that women shouldn’t have been allowed to get an education, and that women wouldn’t be nearly as close as they are today. Specifically, now women can run to be president or prime minister of any country, they also qualify to be lawyers and judges in the supreme court of Canada. Also, women proved them wrong. Throughout the years, women proved that with hard work and dedication, that anything could be possible. Now, women are recognized politically, socially, and environmentally all around the world, and are widely accepted as individuals.