A Royal Commission on the Status of Women was established 50 years ago with a mandate to “inquire into and report upon the status of women in Canada, and to recommend what steps might be taken by the federal government to ensure for women equal opportunities with men in all aspects of Canadian society.” The Commission made more than 160 recommendations to improve the status of women through a variety of legislative, economic and social reforms from bringing in a national child care program to addressing the disproportionately high rate of poverty among women to making discrimination against Indigenous women illegal. Many of the recommendations were implemented and the status of women has improved in many ways. However, women in Canada today suffer large equality gaps.
Identify an area of gender discrimination that continues to exist today, explain why it is so important to you, and propose measures the federal government should take to address it.