Bellies, Bonuses, Bewilderment
Dec 29, 2008 Random Thoughts
In a nutshell a feminist is: A person who supports the equality of women with men. Or, according to Wikipedia feminism “is a discourse that involves various movements, theories and philosophies which are concerned with the issue of gender difference, that advocate equality for women, and that campaign for women’s rights and interests.”
Reasonable enough, right? Why, then does it have such stigma? Why do I visualize women with under-arm hair and placards, chanting death to men? Check out the first picture on the Wikepedia page on Feminism – women with placards. Despite some negative stereotypes the feminist movement has done a lot to positively alter law and culture, including the right to vote, reproductive rights and workplace rights including maternity leave.
But, after reading a post by Mom on the Run about how her maternity leave messed up her raise and bonus I started thinking, are we as equal as we think? It isn’t something that usually crosses my mind, since for the most part I have never felt that I couldn’t do anything simply because I am a woman.
In reality, all is not always equal. The civil right to vote federally for women in Canada has only been allowed since 1918 – only a young 90 years! So, perhaps we are just in the infancy of equal rights.
The Equal Pay Coalition lists the following information:
- According to Statistics Canada, women, on average earn 29% less than men. This wage gap was even larger for racial minority women, aboriginal women and women with disabilities. Racial minority women, on average, earn 36% less than men. Aboriginal women, on average, earn 54% less than men. Women with disabilities earn significantly less than women and men without disabilities.
- Young women graduating from university earn 16% less than male graduates in their first jobs. This wage gap widens as their careers progress. For every age group the earnings gap for women with a university degree has widened in the last decade.
I am sure some of these figures are affected by decisions we, as moms end up making for our families; for example working part-time, working shorter hours, job-sharing, becoming a stay-at-home-mom, and working in careers such as teaching that allow flexibility around our kids schedules, and of course taking time away from our careers for maternity and parental leave.
Despite general equality between genders women do tend to continue to take the bulk of the child rearing – even if they, like their husbands, work full-time. In my family, I am lucky as my husband works shift-work which makes him more available to take on increased duties with the kids. Still, it is the women who take the leave from their careers to have babies, no way around that one!
In Canada we are fortunate enough to get a full year to take care of our little ones. Which compared to our neighbours to the south is amazing. We are home long enough to see them get their first teeth, roll over and sit up for the first time, crawl and often even take the first steps. The downside of course is that we take a break from our career, and so we aren’t likely to get a promotion that year, or be able to apply for a new position at the company, or get a new office or more responsibilities. Fair enough, we aren’t there, we are enjoying our time with our children. And, when we return we can expect to get our job back (or a similar job) and we can start where we left off, right?
Look at Mom on the Run’s situation. She worked the majority of the work year, but left for maternity leave prior to raises and bonuses being delivered. When she returned to work it turns out she didn’t get the raise she had been promised, and months later she didn’t get what she had hoped for in retro pay. The year she was gone she was left off the list for her bonus and despite promises her bonus this year was less than she had hoped. Wouldn’t it make the most sense to give bonuses and raises based on the actual time worked: for example say MOTR worked 8 months out of 12, then she would get 3/4 of her bonus that year. And, obviously she should get a raise for that year worked, and perhaps not the next year – or just an adjustment for “cost of living”. The return year she would be eligible for 1/4 of her bonus.
Why didn’t it work this way for her? I suspect that this is the case for many women. While maternity and parental leave oblige the employer to provide the same job upon return, they do little to encourage employers to continue to compensate the employees for time worked prior to leaving and when they return at the same level as before. So, it seems women who take a year off, not only stall their career as can be expected, but lose out in compensation deserved for work already accomplished. Should more protection be sought for this, or do we as employees simply need to ensure we fight our own battles?
This issue is close to my heart – as I am currently enjoying my fifth month of maternity leave (second and FINAL time!) And, hoping for a bonus too!
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Tags: bonus, canada, careers, ei, feminism, kids, maternity leave, pregnancy, rights, women, Work
