Gender discrimination in trades

Gender discrimination in trades
Name
Institution

Gender discrimination in trades
It has been a norm that the society which we exist in and our cultural practices tend to examine different situations and distinct them on the gender basis. The perception cuts across various sectors whose players involve both men and women. The trade is one of the prominently dominated by the stereotypes and inequality that is based on the gender. It is possible to find various categories within the area of trade where men inherently belong and female belong. In most cases, trades perceived as those that require skills are dominantly occupied by men whereas the trades perceived to require little or no skills are taken up by women. The gender discrimination in trades has been depicted in many countries, and many of them have taken up drastic steps to try and reduce the gap in trade between men and women. On such a good example is in Canada where the gender inequality in trade sector had overwhelmed, and all efforts have been put in place to evict the ill-intended culture.
When it comes to trades, women have been treated as less human being where they have been denied access to better employment like their male counterparts. And in cases where few women have been employed, most have been paid very little (Simms, 2008). One reason that has contributed to the low payment to the women is that most have not been given access to better education like men which forces them to end up engaging in unskilled or less skilled employment.

It is common that women also have been given very little or no access to land the male in the society. In economics, the land is a core factor of production which forms the basis for capital. By being denied right to access land, it becomes hard to compete with men in the trades sector equally. In trade sector, the financial ability is the main determinant of who will remain strong in the market. Unfortunately, women have not been given an opportunity to access finance by being denied access to credit and loans from banks which serves as the source of capital (Abraham, 2016). The denial of women accessing these fundamental components of trade is attributed to the negative information that women lack land ownership. The same imperfection of the information on women has set the notion that women cannot pay back loans.
Gender discrimination has as well found its way into the workforce, one of the biggest elements of trades. It is true that majority of people engaging in trade obtain their capital after engaging in various works. In general, looking at the world’s labor force, it is very easy to tell that the rate of men involved in labor sector is higher compared to the same for women. For instance, it is hard to get women in construction areas which form part of the skilled trade. Other labor force includes welding, operating heavy equipment and even in the electricity sector. In fact, the evidence has been given in the statistics carried out in Canada on the inequality in labor force since 2012 (Wziątek-Staško, & Lewicka, 2007). Even within the same labor force, there are different professions in which both women and men serve. For instance, women most are found doing clerical jobs, sales, and other service occupations. Most of these professions earn them very little with huge responsibilities, unlike the male counterparts who are involved production, managerial and administrative jobs that earn them very high incomes to allow them to dominate the market.
The discrimination in trade based on gender is even worse in developing countries which have expressed inequality in the level of education. It is through basic education and professional training that traders gain experience on the matters of trade. Trade is not all about selling and buying; it is beyond the two variables. Due to the expertise experience and exposure to enough and best education and training, men have been able to dominate the trade sector. Education is the basis for understanding how to minimize costs and maximize profit (Kennedy, Nagata, Mushenski, & Johnson, 2008). Due to the discrimination that has denied women education; they cannot favorably compete with others in the market. Education as well goes beyond and equips people with the right skills to produce more for the market. It is because women have been discriminated that they produce less making it easy for men to dominate the market.
Countries with well-structured infrastructures have the best foundation for trade to take place. It is however unfortunate that women have been denied access to property and ownership which forms part of the infrastructure that allows trade to take place. By not being allowed to own property, it is difficult for the women to be at the same level as men in the trade as men have infrastructures that support their trades. As earlier indicated, production is one of the major components of trade which forms the basis for the goods and services involved in the trade. For any production inputs or factors of production are very important (Borjas, 1983). Women have very less access to the inputs involved in products such as fertilizers and equipment for farming.
In the trade, information flow is very important as it connects buyers to sellers in the market. However, there has been continuous gender inequality on how the information flows in the trade sector. Women have not been given an equal platform to access information like the male. They lack training in matters of trade that will help them the source of information on their own. They as well not allowed to access business-related extension services that will make them do well in trade. Instead, most tend to do things in their way which ultimately leads to them going down in the market (Borjas, 1983). On the other hand, men have facilitated withal the information required on the market for trading. The discrimination in information flow is what has resulted in the big difference between men and women regarding trade.
Men have also been seen as the frontiers in the use of technology in trade. Using technology makes trading activities easier including creating connections between the buyers and sellers or the suppliers. By being denied access to embrace technology, women have not been able to compete at the same level with their male counterparts. As women rely on the old system in the business right from production to selling, men have found it easy to produce and sell to consumers because of the technology.
In conclusion, this issue of gender discrimination in trades is rampant in Canada and is mostly attributed to lack of political goodwill and proper trade policies in place. Despite the challenge, the government of Canada has taken various steps so that the gap in trade based on gender is reduced. A good example is the Canada Labor Program which intends to encourage employment equity in institutions and firms controlled by the federal government. However, discrimination, lack of education and lack of proper policies are the main barriers why women have remained down regarding trades.

References
Abraham, A. (2016). Credit discrimination based on gender: the need to expand the rights of a spousal guarantor under the equal credit opportunity act. Brooklyn Journal Of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law, 10(2), 473-493.
Borjas, G. J. (1983). The measurement of race and gender wage differentials: evidence from the federal sector. ILR Review, 37(1), 79-91.
Kennedy, A., Nagata, E., Mushenski, B. P., & Johnson, D. L. (2008). Wage Discrimination Based on Gender and Race. Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 75(2), 13-19.
Simms, G. P. (2008). The human right to economic equality. (cover story). International Trade Forum, (3/4), 37-38.
Wziątek-Staško, A., & Lewicka, D. (2007). Less equal sex — that is realities of european labour market. Proceedings Of The Second International Conference: Human Resources: The Main Factor Of Regional Development, 66-77.