Research

Women in the Workforce: Canada (Quick Take)

Aug 19, 2020

POPULATION

Canada Is Facing Demographic Shifts Due to a Growing and Aging Population

Between July 1, 2018, and July 1, 2019, Canada’s estimated population growth rate of 1.4% was higher than that of any other Group of 7 (G7)1 nation and was more than twice that of either the United States or the United Kingdom, which tied with the second-highest growth rate of 0.6%.2

  • In the same year, 82.2% of population growth was attributed to international migration,3 a record high for Canada.

As of July 1, 2019, women represented slightly more than half (50.3%) of Canada’s total population (37,589,262).4

By 2031, nearly one-quarter (22.7%) of the total female population is projected to be 65 or older, up from 17.5% in 2019.5

Canadian Women Are Becoming More Diverse

In 2016, 22.6% of all Canadian women and girls were women of colour (3.9 million).6

  • By 2031, over 30% of Canadian women may be women of colour.7

In 2016, 4.9% of all Canadian women and girls identified as Aboriginal (860,265).8

  • By 2031, the population of Aboriginal women may reach 1.1 million.9

EDUCATION

More Canadian Women Than Men Have a Tertiary Degree10

Younger women (ages 25-34) were more likely to have attained tertiary education degrees (70%) compared to younger men (53%) as of 2018.11

Just over a third (35%) of Canadian women had a university level of education in 2018, compared with 29% of men.12

  • However, only 7% of Canadian women obtained post-secondary non-tertiary education,13 which includes certificates and diplomas in traditionally male-dominated trades such as energy, construction, and agriculture, compared with 14% of men.14

LABOUR FORCE 

Women’s Labour Force Participation Has Been Gradually Increasing for Decades15

In 2019, Canadian women 15 years and older represented nearly half (47.4%) of the labor force, compared to 37.6% in 1976—a percentage increase of over 25%.16

  • Over half (61.4%) of Canadian women over age 15 participated in the labor force in 2019.17
  • However, the Covid-19 pandemic threatens to derail these gains.18
    • The first two months of the pandemic dramatically impacted women. Only 55.5% of women participated in Canada’s labour force in April 2020, a drop from 61.2% in February 2020.19
    • Women are more likely than men to fall out of the workforce as a result of the pandemic.20

Canada has the fifth largest workforce in Artificial Intelligence (AI), but women make up less than a quarter (24%) of those employed.21

Parity Remains Elusive for Women in the Private Sector

In 2019, women were overrepresented (63.3%) in the public sector, but below parity (45.1%) in the private sector.22

Women Disproportionately Shoulder Caregiving Responsibilities

Women spend, on average, 3 hours and 44 minutes per day on unpaid work, compared with an average of 2 hours and 28 minutes for men.23

  • In 2017, women were twice as likely (26%) to work part-time than men (13%). Among women, 27% listed childcare as a reason for working part-time.24

LEADERSHIP

Only 24 (or about 3.5%) of TSX-listed Canadian companies had a woman CEO as of July 2019.25

  • Women represented an average of 17.9% of executive officers in S&P/TSX Composite Index companies as of December 2019.26

Percentage of Women Employed by Occupation in Canada27

All Management Occupations 35.3%
Senior Management Occupations 31.5%
Specialized Middle Management Occupations 51.3%
Middle Management Occupations in Retail & Wholesale Trade and Customer Services 39.3%
Middle Management Occupations in Trades, Transportation, Production and Utilities 15.9%

Canadian women held just 27.6% of S&P/TSX board seats as of December 2019.28

  • Bill C-25 passed in 2018, requiring publicly traded companies to disclose their policies on diversity, including that of their boards and senior management.29

THE PAY GAP

Canada’s Gender Pay Gap Has Narrowed Over the Past Twenty Years30

In 2019, full-time employed women (ages 15 and older) earned $0.89 for every dollar men earned, based on average hourly wages.31

  • Among workers aged 25-54, women earned an average $4.13 less per hour than men in 2018. This gap is partially explained by:32
    • Occupational segregation, including the concentration of men in higher-paying sectors.33
    • The higher percentage of women working part-time (16.0%) compared to men (4.8%).34
  • Despite having a higher share of tertiary degrees, highly educated Canadian women earned 73% of their male counterparts’ earnings in 2016.35

Women aged 25-34 experienced a 48% drop in wages in the first year of having a child in 2016.36

  • Younger women (aged 25-29) faced an additional 14% decrease in earnings for the five-year period after having a child.37

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Catalyst Canada.

Full list of Catalyst Quick Takes.

Catalyst, Catalyst Accord 2022: Accelerating the Advancement of Women.

Catalyst, Quick Take: People of Colour in Canada.

Sandrine Devillard, Geneviève Bonin, Anu Madgavkar, Mekala Krishnan, Tina Pan, Han Zhang, and Marissa Ng, Women Matter: The Present and Future of Women at Work in Canada (McKinsey, 2019).

Negin Sattari, Emily Shaffer, Sarah DiMuccio, and Dnika J. Travis, Interrupting Sexism at Work: What Drives Men to Respond Directly or Do Nothing? (Catalyst, June 25, 2020). (View in French / En Français.)

Jennifer Thorpe-Moscon, Alixandra Pollack, and Olufemi Olu-Lafe, Empowering Workplaces Combat Emotional Tax for People of Colour in Canada (Catalyst, 2019).

How to cite this product: Catalyst, Quick Take: Women in the Workforce – Canada (August 19, 2020).

  1. Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Statistics Canada, “Analysis: Total Population,” (2019).
  2. Statistics Canada, “Analysis: Total Population,” (2019).
  3. Statistics Canada, “Analysis: Total Population,” (2019).
  4. Statistics Canada, “Table 17-10-0005-01: Population Estimates on July 1st, by Age and Sex,” (2020).
  5. Statistics Canada, “Canada’s Population Estimates: Age and Sex, July 1, 2019,” The Daily (September, 30, 2019).
  6. Statistics Canada, “Visible Minority (15), Generation Status (4), Age (12) and Sex (3) for the Population in Private Households of Canada, Provinces and Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2016 Census – 25% Sample Data,” 2016 Census (2019).
  7. Tamara Hudon, “Visible Minority Women,” Women in Canada: A Gender-Based Statistical Report, (Statistics Canada, March 3, 2016): p. 3.
  8. Statistics Canada, “Aboriginal Population Profile, 2016 Census,” 2016 Census (2018).
  9. Anne Milan, “Female Population,” Women in Canada: A Gender-Based Statistics Report (Statistics Canada, March 30, 2015): p. 14.
  10. According to the International Standard Classification of Education, “tertiary education builds on secondary education, providing learning activities in specialised fields of education. It aims at learning at a high level of complexity and specialisation. Tertiary education includes what is commonly understood as academic education but also includes advanced vocational or professional education. It comprises ISCED levels 5, 6, 7 and 8, which are labelled as short-cycle tertiary education, Bachelor’s or equivalent level, Master’s or equivalent level, and doctoral or equivalent level, respectively. The content of programmes at the tertiary level is more complex and advanced than in lower ISCED levels.” UNESCO, International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) 2011 (2012): p. 46.; OECD, “Country Note: Canada,” Education at a Glance 2019 (2019).
  11. OECD, “Country Note: Canada,” Education at a Glance 2019 (2019).
  12. Statistics Canada, “Chapter A: The Output of Educational Institutions and the Impact of Learning,” Education Indicators in Canada: An International Perspective, 2019 (December 2019).
  13. Post-secondary non-tertiary education includes “certificates or diplomas from vocational schools or apprenticeship training.” Statistics Canada, “Chapter A: The Output of Educational Institutions and the Impact of Learning,” Education Indicators in Canada: An International Perspective, 2019 (December 2019).
  14. Statistics Canada, “Chapter A: The Output of Educational Institutions and the Impact of Learning,” Education Indicators in Canada: An International Perspective, 2019 (December 2019); Kristyn Frank and Marc Frenette, “How Do Women in Male-Dominated Apprenticeships Fare in the Labour Market?” Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series (Statistics Canada, March 13, 2019).
  15. RBC Economics, “Pandemic Threatens Decades of Women’s Labour Force Gains,” (July 16, 2020).
  16. Statistics Canada, “Table 14-10-0327-01: Labour Force Characteristics by Sex and Detailed Age Group, Annual,” (2020).
  17. Statistics Canada, “Table 14-10-0327-01: Labour Force Characteristics by Sex and Detailed Age Group, Annual,” (2020).
  18. RBC Economics, “Pandemic Threatens Decades of Women’s Labour Force Gains,” (July 16, 2020).
  19. RBC Economics, “Pandemic Threatens Decades of Women’s Labour Force Gains,” (July 16, 2020).
  20. RBC Economics, “Pandemic Threatens Decades of Women’s Labour Force Gains,” (July 16, 2020).
  21. Tara Deschamps, “Canada Has Fifth Biggest AI Workforce, But Still Lacks Diversity: Study,” CTV News, December 18, 2018.
  22. Statistics Canada, “Table 14-10-0027-01: Employment by Class of Worker, Annual,” (2020).
  23. Figures represent individuals aged 15-64. OECD, “Employment: Time Spent in Paid and Unpaid Work, by Sex,” OECD Stat (2020).
  24. Martha Patterson, “Who Works Part-Time and Why?” (Labor Statistics at a Glance, Statistics Canada, November 6, 2018).
  25. Andrew MacDougall,  John M. Valley, Jennifer Jeffrey, Ramz Aziz, Jennifer Cao, Marleigh Dick, Aly Kim, Bradley Lastman, and Tiye Traore, 2019 Diversity Disclosure Practices: Women in Leadership Roles at TSX-Listed Companies (Osler, 2019): p. 38.
  26. Catalyst, Women in Leadership at S&P/TSX Companies (2020).
  27. Statistics Canada, “Table 14-10-0335-03: Proportion of Women and Men in Management Positions, Annual,” (2020).
  28. Catalyst, Women in Leadership at S&P/TSX Companies (2020).
  29. Practical Law Canada Corporate and Securities, Expanded Diversity Disclosure Requirements for CBCA-Incorporated Reporting Issuers Coming in 2020 (Thomson Reuters Practical Law, 2019).
  30. Rachelle Pelletier, Martha Patterson, and Melissa Moyser, “The Gender Wage Gap in Canada: 1998 to 2018,” (Labour Statistics: Research Papers, Statistics Canada, October 7, 2019).
  31. Statistics Canada, “Table 14-10-0340-02: Average and Median Gender Wage Ratio, Annual,” (2020).
  32. Statistics Canada, “The Gender Wage Gap in 2018,” (October 7, 2019).
  33. Statistics Canada, “The Gender Wage Gap in 2018,” (October 7, 2019).
  34. Statistics Canada, “The Gender Wage Gap in 2018,” (October 7, 2019).
  35. OECD, “Country Note: Canada,” Education at a Glance 2019 (2019).
  36. Andrew Agopsowicz, Family Matters: the Cost of Having Children on Women’s Careers (RBC Economic Research, March 2019).
  37. Andrew Agopsowicz, Family Matters: the Cost of Having Children on Women’s Careers (RBC Economic Research, March 2019).