DCHP-2

employment equity DCHP-2 (October 2016)

• n. — Administration

  a principle supporting equal treatment in employment (hiring, wages, benefits, personal support) for disadvantaged groups (visible minorities, people with disabilities, women)

  Type: 5. Frequency — The term employment equity was used in Canada by the 1984 Abella Commission, in contrast to the term affirmative action used to refer to similar principles and policies in the US (see the 1984 quotation). The term employment equity is also attested in the US from at least 1982 onwards. Internationally, the term is most frequently used in South Africa, likely due to efforts to redress inequalities dating from the Apartheid period (see Chart 1).
  See also COD-2, which marks it "Cdn & S Africa".

  See also: equality rights  

  • 1984  In her report, Judge Abella said the phrase affirmative action must be replaced by "employment equity," which she defines as ways to remove arbitrary barriers to employment of specific groups. 
  • 1987  Mulroney told the advisory council his government means business in promoting fairness for women, and the rejection of two contract bids from companies who failed to meet Ottawa's new rules on "employment equity" proves it. 
  • 1996  The university's failure to enact the recommendations of its own 1993 status of women report speaks volumes about how seriously women's welfare is regarded by its administration and should alarm anyone with a legitimate concern for employment equity and harmonious gender relations. 
  • 2007  A significant strengthening of employment equity programs, particularly in the case of the Winnipeg and Brandon police forces, including targets and remedies. 
  • 2015  Yet, the attitudes that have sustained harassment [in the Canadian Forces] are deeply entrenched and were identified a decade and half [sic] ago as major obstacles to the integration of women into combat posts. "Women must cope simultaneously with symbols and behaviours which perpetuate and maintain male ideology while developing identities as women which satisfies the organizational culture," said a Dec. 20, 1999 employment equity plan. "The male identity of the organization is strongly evident through sexualized behaviours and norms, such as male attitudes of paternalism, sexist male talk, joking and innuendo and sexual harassment, in the day-to-day work environment."