Chapter 2 Answers to "Test Your Knowledge" and "Questions for Critical Thought" questions

Answers may include immigrants, racialized people, LGBTQ+ people, women, people with disabilities, young people, seniors, and Indigenous Peoples.

• Immigrants are disadvantaged because their qualifications from back home do not convert to the same status in Canada. They also face prejudice in the workplace and have limited employment prospects.
• Racialized people face prejudice, inequality, and racism in the workplace.
• LGBTQ+ people face prejudice in the workplace.
• Women face prejudice in the workplace, the gender pay gap, disproportionate responsibilities in their households, and limited maternity leave and work-life balance.
• People with disabilities not only face prejudice in the workplace but are at times not employable through conventional means. These individuals require accommodations which many workplaces do not offer.
• Young people face high rates of underemployment, making it difficult for them to achieve social and economic stability.
• Seniors face health limitations and prejudice in the workplace due to their age. They also lack a fair pension and welfare system to compensate them for their hard work throughout their lives, forcing them to seek work in old age.
• Indigenous Peoples continue to bear the effects of colonization and remain the most vulnerable population on every dimension of social inequality in Canada.

Answers may include any populations that are members of multiple disadvantaged groups: for example, racialized women, LGBTQ+ immigrants, Indigenous youth, etc.

The low-income cut-off (LICO) identifies income thresholds below which a family will likely spend a larger proportion of its income on necessities than an average family of similar size. The market-basket measure (MBM) calculates how much income a household requires to meet its needs, including subsistence needs (such as basic food and shelter) and needs to satisfy community norms (such as the clothes worn in that community). The low-income measure (LIM) calculates the low-income threshold of a household as being one-half of the median income of a household of the same size in a similar-sized community.

We prefer to use the term racialized people because it implies a socially constructed process that is context-dependent and can be changed over the course of people’s lifetimes. It encapsulates the many ways by which people are disadvantaged and/or made to feel different, and often less worthy, on account of these perceived or imagined physical differences.

The three classes of immigrants are economic, family class, and refugees. Economic immigrants are people deemed to have the necessary skills and experience to contribute to Canada’s economy, whether as skilled workers, business people, professionals, or otherwise. Family class immigrants are those who are sponsored by close relatives already living in Canada and who may or may not have useful job-related skills. Refugees are those who come to Canada in need of protection from persecution in their home country (and who also may or may not have job-related skills).

Sexual orientation refers to whether a person is attracted to members of the same sex, the opposite sex, or both. Gender identity refers to how an individual person experiences gender.

According to the Canadian Survey on Disability, people are considered to have a disability if they have difficulty carrying out familiar tasks and are limited in their normal daily activities due to a long-term health condition or health-related problem. The ten types of disability are pain, mobility, agility, hearing, seeing, learning, psychological, memory, speech, and developmental.

Feminization of poverty

Young people

Lesbian; gay; bisexual; transgender; queer; + stands for all the other identities that the acronym encompasses (asexual, pansexual, intersex, nonbinary, Two-Spirit, etc.)

Strengths: Effective way to characterize the impacts of colonialism and colonial trauma; the long-term economic, political, and social impacts of colonialism; the socialization and childhood learning of generations of Indigenous families; and the “four Cs” of Indigenous historical trauma.

Weaknesses: Argued by Indigenous scholars to be a manifestation of the colonial agenda; obscures the present-day oppression of Indigenous Peoples; frames Indigenous cultures as inferior with a focus on what is viewed as problematic parenting or personal deficits.

Key topics to discuss: Women as a “minority group”; their marginalization, exclusion, and stigmatization in many male-dominated activities. The “feminization of poverty” concept must be unpacked thoroughly in order to have a solid basis for arguing whether it is a significant social problem or not.

Arguments for why “feminization of poverty” is a significant social problem: Women are statistically disadvantaged. Consider articulating the points in the chapter on women as low-wage earners, women raising families by themselves, wage gaps, racialized women, senior women, migrant women, Indigenous women, queer women, trans women, and women with disabilities.

Arguments for why “feminization of poverty” is not a significant social problem: Fails to encompass other non-female individuals that face the same inequalities and problems.

You can reference any social initiatives in or outside of Canada that may help resolve issues mentioned in the chapter, such as persons with disabilities being more likely to live in poverty and their limited prospects for employment. In the 1960s, people with disabilities sought to change their unfavourable conditions and started a movement. The disability rights movement was a Canadian movement that spoke for the respect, full citizenship, and inclusion of disabled people in society. However, as outlined in the chapter, people with disabilities still face great inequalities to this date.

You can mention a wide variety of solutions that you see as feasible and that have been successfully implemented in other countries.

Examples: More welfare and social security for people facing inequality; civil rights movements; more government action; more corporate responsibility and awareness.