Discrimination Against Boys in Science World: Protests 4 Men Starts the Fight for Equality for Boys in Canada
VANCOUVER, BC, CANADA, August 9, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- Protests 4 Men is a newly founded organization with the original mission of achieving equality for men in the judicial system in Canada. The founder of this organization is Arman Arian, a researcher and a PhD holder in Mathematics from UBC. After observing discrimination cases against boys in Canada, especially in the context of education, Protests 4 Men has expanded its mission to achieve equality for boys as well.
This type of discrimination and less encouragement for boys to pursue their academic goals and depriving them of equal opportunities in education has led to a higher dropout rate for boys compared to girls. According to Statistics Canada, 20% of males had not completed high school in 1999, while this percentage for females was 9% ( https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/81-004-x/200410/7423-eng.htm). This means for every female, there were more than two males who had not completed high school by the age of 20. These percentages were reported in 2019/2020 as 19% and 13%, for the percentage of young males and females who had not completed high school respectively (https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/81-599-x/81-599-x2022002-eng.htm).
An example of such a discrimination against boys is a program called "Girls and STEAM" in Science World, Vancouver, BC. Here, the word STEAM stands for "Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics". According to their website, the mission of this program has been described as "to encourage young girls and women to pursue their scientific and explore careers in STEAM by expanding their access to STEAM opportunities" ( https://www.scienceworld.ca/girls-and-steam-summit/ ). This is clearly inconsistent and is in contrary to section 8 of BC Human Rights Code (https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/00_96210_01). Section 8 (1) implies that a person or a group of persons should not be denied or discriminated against regarding access to a service that is available to the public. Unfortunately, Science World have not followed this important BC Human Rights Code and for this service , namely engaging participants in STEM-based activities, have excluded a group of persons, namely boys and they are not allowing them to register in this program. This happens while as explained above, less encouragement and less access to equal opportunities has already led to less academic achievements for boys in Canada.
Protests 4 Men has inquired about this from Science World and asked for an explanation about not following the BC Human Rights Code and the only answer received so far after following up for several times came from Dana Higgins, Director of Public Programs & Engagements at Science World, that she provided some universal statistics and Canadian statistics to justify their decision. However, regardless of statistics, the BC Human Rights Code must be followed by every organization and no one should be deprived from equal opportunities because of their gender. Having said this, universal statistics is irrelevant in this context since the situation of every country is unique to its own. The statistics in Canada shows that boys are behind in education due to less opportunities and encouragement as explained above. The link that Dana Higgins referred to in order to justify their decision, namely https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/75-004-m/75-004-m2019002-eng.htm , does not imply girls or women do not have equal job or educational opportunities and for example, it was mentioned that the employment rate of core-aged women was increased to 79.1%, the highest since 1976. Dana Higgins also mentioned in her response that their aim was not to exclude the boys. However, regardless of their aim or motive, exclusion of boys has already happened in this Science and Technology-related program, which is in contrary with BC Human Rights Code.
As such, and as Protests 4 Men has received no explanation from Science World about not following the BC Human Rights Code stated above despite making inquiry for several times and as Science World has refused to expand this STEM program to all potentially interested participants including all boys and girls, a complaint from Science World has been submitted in BC Human Rights Tribunal (BCHRT) (http://www.bchrt.bc.ca/). All evidence regarding this complaint has also been submitted to BCHRT by Protests 4 Men.
Protests 4 Men would like to ask the public to submit their evidence or complaints regarding this matter or any other discrimination against men or boys in Canada at info@protests4men.ca.
This type of discrimination and less encouragement for boys to pursue their academic goals and depriving them of equal opportunities in education has led to a higher dropout rate for boys compared to girls. According to Statistics Canada, 20% of males had not completed high school in 1999, while this percentage for females was 9% ( https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/81-004-x/200410/7423-eng.htm). This means for every female, there were more than two males who had not completed high school by the age of 20. These percentages were reported in 2019/2020 as 19% and 13%, for the percentage of young males and females who had not completed high school respectively (https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/81-599-x/81-599-x2022002-eng.htm).
An example of such a discrimination against boys is a program called "Girls and STEAM" in Science World, Vancouver, BC. Here, the word STEAM stands for "Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics". According to their website, the mission of this program has been described as "to encourage young girls and women to pursue their scientific and explore careers in STEAM by expanding their access to STEAM opportunities" ( https://www.scienceworld.ca/girls-and-steam-summit/ ). This is clearly inconsistent and is in contrary to section 8 of BC Human Rights Code (https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/00_96210_01). Section 8 (1) implies that a person or a group of persons should not be denied or discriminated against regarding access to a service that is available to the public. Unfortunately, Science World have not followed this important BC Human Rights Code and for this service , namely engaging participants in STEM-based activities, have excluded a group of persons, namely boys and they are not allowing them to register in this program. This happens while as explained above, less encouragement and less access to equal opportunities has already led to less academic achievements for boys in Canada.
Protests 4 Men has inquired about this from Science World and asked for an explanation about not following the BC Human Rights Code and the only answer received so far after following up for several times came from Dana Higgins, Director of Public Programs & Engagements at Science World, that she provided some universal statistics and Canadian statistics to justify their decision. However, regardless of statistics, the BC Human Rights Code must be followed by every organization and no one should be deprived from equal opportunities because of their gender. Having said this, universal statistics is irrelevant in this context since the situation of every country is unique to its own. The statistics in Canada shows that boys are behind in education due to less opportunities and encouragement as explained above. The link that Dana Higgins referred to in order to justify their decision, namely https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/75-004-m/75-004-m2019002-eng.htm , does not imply girls or women do not have equal job or educational opportunities and for example, it was mentioned that the employment rate of core-aged women was increased to 79.1%, the highest since 1976. Dana Higgins also mentioned in her response that their aim was not to exclude the boys. However, regardless of their aim or motive, exclusion of boys has already happened in this Science and Technology-related program, which is in contrary with BC Human Rights Code.
As such, and as Protests 4 Men has received no explanation from Science World about not following the BC Human Rights Code stated above despite making inquiry for several times and as Science World has refused to expand this STEM program to all potentially interested participants including all boys and girls, a complaint from Science World has been submitted in BC Human Rights Tribunal (BCHRT) (http://www.bchrt.bc.ca/). All evidence regarding this complaint has also been submitted to BCHRT by Protests 4 Men.
Protests 4 Men would like to ask the public to submit their evidence or complaints regarding this matter or any other discrimination against men or boys in Canada at info@protests4men.ca.
Arman Arian, PhD
Protests 4 Men
info@protests4men.ca
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