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  • The response of the Canadian labor movement to sexual orientation discrimination has been mixed and uneven. The Canadian Labour Congress, along with several provincial federations and a growing number of unions, have taken a leadership role in promoting equal rights for gays and lesbians, while other labor organizations have done nothing at all. Public sector and Canadian-based unions are much more likely to have been active than have American-based unions, even though there are important exceptions to these trends. These developments are partially explained by regional dynamics, membership demographics, degree of activism, the presence of women's committees, and organizational leadership.

  • A study compared men and women clerical-secretarial workers in one public-sector institution (University of Toronto). Just 7% of the workforce was male, and they were concentrated mainly in the clerical job classifications. Men were found to be less committed to the occupation than women and reported a greater sense of occupational choice. Women tended to find the work more personally meaningful than men, and men were somewhat more likely to find the work trivial and tedious. Both sexes were extremely discontent with their developmental and promotional opportunities. This suggests an occupation with inadequate developmental opportunities and inadequate succession planning, rather than one in which there is a systematic gender bias influencing who gets ahead. Younger workers felt this gap in opportunity even more strongly than older workers. Younger workers as a group may be less willing to accept the sorts of conditions and restraints that have for too long been part and parcel of pink-collar occupations.

Last update from database: 4/3/25, 4:10 AM (UTC)

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