I remember years ago attending a conference on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Just prior to this I was running a small company, and grew up with most of my family being business owners.
Anyways, I had a little experience with a group of students working towards a degree in social work. As group we were to decide between 2 people who we would want to hire -- The "job" was working with disadvantaged youth. The two people to pick from were A) 35 year old with Masters in social work, 5 years work experience work with youths, white male and B) 30 year old "ethnic" female with grade 10 only, 5 years experience as an assistant in womens shelter.
Now, from the point of view of a pretend manager/owner/whatever -- it was pretty clear that A was a better person for the job -- nothing do with race, gender,age whatever. Just had more education, and more relevant experience. Simple though process -- who is going to be the best and getting the job done and done well.
I was called foul names by the rest of the group. What about the woman, she might have some real "life" experience, she might not had had proper access to education, she might have never had the chance to blah,blah blah.
The sad part in all of this -- If I am running a business that my livelihood depends on, I DON"T CARE about how rough or great your life has been, I DON"T CARE what your gender,race,age is. I car about who is best for the job.
Somehow, the private sector has been branded as been "good ole white boys clubs", with the need to legislate rules in to "fix" the problem. It seems to me that a lot of these rules seem to put more racism/sexism in than was there to start.
Yes, women rarely got management when they were 20-30ish year old. But, on the other hand -- In a long term high stress, high learning curve job some owners didn't what to go though getting a mat leave replacement just before the big project is due in. Not nice, but it did happen.
I really dislike the "affirmative action" laws, as I think that my local fireperson should be able to haul 50lbs of hose up a ladder regardless if the are male or female. If you drive heavy haulers for a mine, guess what, women are the preferred gender. They driver better and the trucks have less downtime, if as a guy you drive like a twit, you get replaced.
Best person for the job, regardless of gender/race/age/religion/etc. In fact, I wish there was a way to exclude such information from the hiring process completely.
Sorry for the long winded response, my wife is a Sociologist, so these things are normal conversation around my house
