What Is The Impact Of Kittay On Gender Inequality

One of the most integral elements of a just, democratic society is equality for all. In any facet of life, every individual should have an opportunity to strive and succeed, alongside every other. Unfortunately, humanity’s perilous past consisted of rigid discrimination of certain human beings based on their differences. One of the most prevalent forms of inequality has created a substantial divide between the two halves of the population; the men and the women. Even with the progress that the western world is making towards gender equality today, the workforce is still a glaring example of pressing gender inequality. However, a newly proposed quota put forth by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan suggests that every firm on the TSX be required

No individual is entirely independent from the people around them; male or female, every person has dependency needs, as they are called. Attending to these needs is called dependency work, and this responsibility has almost always fell on women for many generations; the men have always been the workers, the breadwinners, while the women stay home and provide care for their children. This societal norm has not only created stigma around women in the workforce, but also around men doing dependency work of any kind. Women have been hindered by society’s expectations to fulfil the dependencies of others; this notion has “pervaded their lives such that it has thrown doubt on the aspiration that they will ever share the world with men in equality” (Kittay 1999, 16). This quota will introduce a feminine presence to the workplace, and subsequently encourage a stronger male involvement in dependency work. Ultimately, this will an extremely impactful shift towards gender equality, as it opens up new windows of opportunity for men and women alike. The OTPP quota’s relevance to Kittay’s dependency critique—and the changes in equality that it incurs—could help mitigate the stark divide between the two genders. Presently, most, “societal interactions are not between persons symmetrically situated… where women are likely to be at one end of the asymmetry” (Kittay 1999, 15). Kittay argues that this power imbalance is not necessarily a bad thing, but it has created a serious disconnect between males and females in society. A social hierarchy will always exist in any functional society; it is irrational and impractical to imagine a world in which every individual has equal wealth and equal status. However, power inequalities should be based on factors other than gender; women should not always be on the short end of a power inequity, as they