When you type in any combination of the words “visible minority”, “women” and “Canada” into your search bar, looking for any statistics, it is more likely than not that all the reports and surveys would be at least from two years ago, if not more. Ofcourse, they lie hidden on the second page of Google search results, which in all honesty, no one is likely to scroll to. This speaks volumes about the visibility of the visible minorities, especially women, in today’s world. To get to the root of the context, one must look back on what defines “visible minority” and how that definition has evolved over the years.
Traditionally, minority was used to describe the status of that of a non-white person but one can see why it is no longer all-encompassing. With the growth of immigration and multi-racial people, the older definition falls short in including racially ambiguous people or people from minority communities who may look “white”. With multiculturalism seeping through our everyday lives, it’s time to take a hard look at who makes up the category of visible minority women. In Canada, the term extends to the new immigrants, the Indigenous women and women of colour, depending on how they identify themselves, rather than what they “look” like.
In 2016, Statistics Canada, published a report on the economic conditions and education of visible minority women in Canada. However, Statistics Canada’s definition of visible minority as “persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour” seems not to cover it all. Even amidst this, the report showed that despite having more educational credentials than their non-minority peers, women in visible minorities faced lesser employment rates than their counterparts. The wage gap between the two is also an eye-opener and tells us that we have a long way to go, the journey to which should have started yesterday. But to paraphrase the real estate industry, “The best time was yesterday. The next best time is today.”.
It is estimated that by 2031, the visible minority women will make up a third of the women’s population and yet the gaping holes in the workplace, serve as a reminder to the discrimination and unconscious bias that these women face, when they go out into the world. A study from Catalyst showed that over 52% of indigenous people working in Canada, faced some kind of bias at the workplace, with women reporting a higher percentage of 67. Discrimination on the basis of race, gender, language and colour added to the problems faced by women when and if they decide to become a mother – everything gives us a peek into why many women face a concrete ceiling when it comes to career growth, when they decide to stay back in the workforce.
As many HR departments and PR firms are taking up this issue of under representation of visible minority women in the workplace, one must strive towards bringing about a real change, and not a publicity gimmick, that comprises of happy pictures of women of colour, passing off as a testament to the cultural diversity of the workplace. Leaders must focus on learning more about how to do better when it comes to hiring and retaining visible minority women, and also about overcoming the unconscious bias against the same.
Bodhirupa Raha is a columnist of this article. This article represents the views of the author only and does not necessarily reflect the views of DiWo.