Quick Takes

Published: April 2010

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Challenges Counting Women in Management

Statistics Canada, Canada’s national statistical agency, has limited data available online about women in management. Some data is available as part of a larger, more detailed table, and other data is available isolated from related contextual numbers. Currently, Statistics Canada has data from the 1996, 2001 and 2006 Censuses online. For information dating further back, please visit the Depository Services Program.

Percentage of Women in Management Occupations

The earliest data available online about women in management positions is from 1987. The numbers from all charts below indicate the percentage of all workers in the named occupation that were women.

All data presented in the same table are comparable. Due to changes in the classification systems used, data in different tables are not comparable.*

Percentage of Women in Management Occupations
Occupation	19871	19962	20043	20064
Senior management	21.1	27.3	22.1	26.3
Other management	30.7	37.6	37.7	36.9
Total management	30.1	37.1	36.6	36.3

 

Percentage of Women in Management Occupations
Occupation	20015	20066	20087,8
Management occupations	35.4	36.7	39.0
Senior management	24.7	23.8	34.1

The following table provides additional management levels for 2001 and 2006. Data for 2008 is unavailable.

Percentage of Women in Management Occupations
Occupation	20019	200610
Specialist managers	35.3	37.8
Managers in retail trade, food and accomodation services	43.0	44.5
Other managers, n.e.c.	32.5	34.1

 

Women Corporate Officers¹¹

(For a summary of most recent women in Canadian management data, look at our Quick Take: Women in Management in Canada).

* The 1991 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) was used to classify occupation data in the 1991 and 1996 censuses. In 2006, Statistics Canada began using the National Occupational Classification for Statistics 2006 (NOC–S 2006) to classify occupation data. The variable ‘Occupation’ was created to facilitate comparison between data coded to the National Occupational Classification for Statistics 2006 (NOC–S 2006) with 1991 and 1996 Census occupation data coded to the 1991 Standard Occupational Classification (1991 SOC). Early data can be compared with data coded using the 1991 SOC, if the variable occupation (historical) is used.

SOURCES

¹ Statistics Canada, "Distribution of employment of women and men, by occupation, 1987, 1996 and 2004." 

² Statistics Canada, "Distribution of employment of women and men, by occupation, 1987, 1996 and 2004." 

³ Statistics Canada, "Distribution of employment of women and men, by occupation, 1987, 1996 and 2004." 

⁴ Statistics Canada, "Distribution of employment, by occupation, 1987, 1996 and 2006." 

⁵ Statistics Canada, "Occupation - 2001 National Occupational Classification for Statistics (60), Age Groups (10) and Sex (3) for Labour Force 15 Years and Over, for Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2001 Census - 20% Sample Data." 

⁶ Statistics Canada, "Industry - North American Industry Classification System 2002 (23), Occupation - National Occupational Classification for Statistics 2006 (60), Class of Worker (6) and Sex (3) for the Labour Force 15 Years and Over of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2006 Census - 20% Sample Data." 

⁷ Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey (2008).

⁸ Statistics Canada, CANSIM, "Table 282-0009: Labour force survey estimates (LFS), by National Occupational Classification for Statistics (NOC-S) and sex" (2008).

⁹ Statistics Canada, "Occupation - 2001 National Occupational Classification for Statistics (60), Age Groups (10) and Sex (3) for Labour Force 15 Years and Over, for Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2001 Census - 20% Sample Data." 

¹⁰ Statistics Canada, "Industry - North American Industry Classification System 2002 (23), Occupation - National Occupational Classification for Statistics 2006 (60), Class of Worker (6) and Sex (3) for the Labour Force 15 Years and Over of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2006 Census - 20% Sample Data." 

¹¹ Catalyst, 2008 Catalyst Census of Women Corporate Officers and Top Earners of the FP500 (2009). 

UPDATED April 12, 2010