Search

This article examines the varied understandings of human rights in Ontario in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. The article compares the social origins and implementation of Ontario's Fair Employment Practices Act - which combatted racist and religious discrimination - with Ontario's Female Employees Fair Remuneration Act - which mandated equal pay for women who did the same work as men. Although a few feminists called for the Fair Employment Practices Act to prohibit sex discrimination as well, their pleas fell mainly on deaf ears in this period. Men and women who fought against racist injustice were frequently unaware of gender injustice, for they, like so many others, subscribed to the deeply embedded ideology of the family wage. Conversely, some of the most outspoken advocates of women's rights were unconscious of - or chose to ignore - racism. At the same time, some of the most committed advocates of equal pay for equal work actually reinforced certain conventional assumptions about men's gender privilege at work and at home. Moreover, while the enforcement of both acts was constrained by the conciliatory framework embedded within them, the government officials who were charged with applying both acts interpreted the equal pay act quite narrowly and were significantly more diligent in tackling racist and religious employment discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the social origins of human rights campaigns in Ontario from Second World War to the early 1950. Organizations supporting the human rights activists' struggles; Importance of the intervention of minority groups; Impact of human rights activists on ideas about the nature of Canadian society.