It’s been a century but women are still facing significant problems in the workplace.
Julie Guard is a professor in history and labour studies at the University of Manitoba and she says women have faced issues since they entered the workforce. Issues like paid maternity leave, lower wages and sexual harassment have been constant flights for women.
“All the issues are much the same as they were 100 years ago,” Guard said.
“There were a number of waves. Most recently I would see the Me Too movement is the most recent iteration of women organizing as women and demanding that for instance they not have to put up with sexual harassment at work, which women have had to put up with since women entered the work force in the 1800s.”
Guard says women played a major role in the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike — even being the first to walk off the job.
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“The strike was called for May 15 to start at 11 a.m. Thursday morning. People were ready to strike at 11 but the hello girls as they were called started their shifts at 7 a.m. so at 7 a.m. the shift didn’t come into work so those women were effectively the first workers out on strike in 1919 starting the most important strike in Canadian labour history,” she said.
She says while the strike didn’t initially give significant gains for women it helped in the long run.
“Immediately in the short term the strike was not a huge win for the workers, a number of workers were actually deported because they were involved in the strike, but in the long term we have done hugely better because working people were demonstrating that they were prepared to stand up and fight back against employers when employers organized against them.”
Michelle Gawronsky, President of MGEU, says she understands what it’s like for women to face a lot of issues in the workplace like being taken seriously.
“Often they feel like they have to prove themselves more,” she said.
“Making sure that I’s are dotted and t’s are crossed and not that everyone doesn’t worry about that at work, but with women we take things internally and we have this stronger need to prove we can carry both worlds.”
Gawronsky says while women at work have made some significant advances, there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done, like equality of pay, sexual harassment at work and the balance of labour.
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