Women’s History Month 2024... By the numbers

Demographic Characteristics

In 2021, more than 1 in 4 (25.8%) women aged 15 and older were part of the racialized^{Footnote 1} population, 27.1% were immigrants^{Footnote 2}, and 4.5% were Indigenous^{Footnote 3}^{Footnote 4}.
Over the 2019-to-2021 period, 4.9% of women aged 15 and older reported being LGB+^{Footnote 5}. Specifically, 1.2% of women were lesbian or gay, while 3.2% were bisexual. A higher share of young women (i.e., those aged 15 to 24; 11.1%) reported being bisexual than women aged 25 to 64 (2.7%) and 65 and older (0.3%)^{Footnote 6}.
There were 31,555 transgender women aged 15 and older in Canada in 2021, accounting for 53.1% of the transgender population^{Footnote 7}.
In 2022, 3 in 10 (29.9%) women had a disability in Canada. Women (43.1%) were more likely to have a more severe disability than men (38.5%)^{Footnote 8}.

Women's Educational Attainment

Although women were under-represented in certain fields of study related to digital technologies in 2021, some groups were better represented than others. For example, women accounted for 1 in 3 immigrants (33.6%) and racialized people (33.9%) with a postsecondary credential in computer and information sciences, compared with approximately 1 in 4 Canadian-born (24.0%) and non-racialized (24.3%) people with a credential in this field^{Footnote 9}.
From 2010 to 2018, the proportion of women among Indigenous graduates was higher (72.1%) than among non-Indigenous graduates (61.8%). Among graduates with a bachelor's degree, women represented 81.0% of Inuit graduates, 75.7% of First Nations graduates and 68.3% of Métis graduates^{Footnote 10}.

Women in the Economy

Between 2007 and 2022, the average hourly gender wage gap narrowed among paid workers aged 20 to 54. Over this period, it narrowed the most between Indigenous men and women (by 8.0 percentage points) and Canadian-born men and women (by 5.9 percentage points) and the least among immigrants—regardless of age at arrival (by 2.7 percentage points)^{Footnote 11}.
Although the number of women inventors in Canada is lower than that of men inventors, the number of women inventors grew at a faster pace (by 14.3 percentage points) between 2005 to 2009 and 2015 to 2019^{Footnote 12}.

Women in Leadership Positions

Women's representation among elected members of Parliament and ministers appointed to federal Cabinet has increased over the past few decades. The proportion of elected women members of Parliament increased from 20.6% to 30.6% over the 1997-to-2023 period, while the proportion of women who are members of Cabinet doubled (from 24.3% in 2002 to 48.7% in 2023)^{Footnote 13}.
Close to three-quarters (73.5%) of senior management positions in majority women-owned businesses^{Footnote 14} were held by women in the first quarter of 2024—more than double the average proportion of women in senior management positions across all private sector businesses (35.6%)^{Footnote 15}.
Almost 1 million women were self-employed in Canada in 2022, representing 37.3% of the total self-employed population. In comparison, 26.3% of the self-employed population were women in 1976. Korean Canadian women had the highest self-employment rate among women in 2021, with 1 in 5 (19.9%) self-employed^{Footnote 16}.

Women and their Families

For over a decade, the number of children per woman in Canada has been on a general downward trend, falling from 1.69 in 2009 to 1.43 in 2021^{Footnote 17}.
Women in Canada continue to receive parental benefits at a substantially higher rate than their partners, but the gap is narrowing. In 2022, the share of partners who claimed or intended to claim parental benefits reached 46.6%—the highest proportion since the EICS started collected information on maternity and parental benefits^{Footnote 18}.

Note to readers

For all data presented here from the 2021 Census, Canadian Community Health Survey, Canadian Survey on Disability, the Postsecondary Student Information System, as well as data related to elected members of Parliament and members of Cabinet, gender is the variable used, whereas data from the Labour Force Survey and Canadian Employer–Employee Dynamics Database use the sex variable. For the Canadian Survey on Business Conditions, respondents were asked to provide the proportion of employees of their business who are women and men.

Beginning in 2021, the census asked questions about both the sex at birth and gender of individuals. While data on sex at birth are needed to measure certain indicators, as of the 2021 Census, gender (and not sex) is the standard variable used in concepts and classifications. For more details on the new gender concept, see Age, Sex at Birth and Gender Reference Guide, Census of Population, 2021.

Given that the non-binary population is small, data aggregation to a two-category gender variable is sometimes necessary to protect the confidentiality of responses. In these cases, individuals in the category "non-binary persons" are distributed into the other two gender categories. For all data presented here from the 2021 Census, Canadian Community Health Survey, and 2022 Canadian Survey on Disability using the gender variable, the category "women" includes women, as well as some non-binary persons.

A fact sheet on gender concepts, Filling the gaps: Information on gender in the 2021 Census, is also available.

Footnotes

Footnote 1

Data presented here on “racialized” women are measured using the “visible minority” variable. “Visible minority” refers to whether or not a person belongs to one of the visible minority groups defined by the Employment Equity Act. The Employment Equity Act defines visible minorities as “persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour.” The visible minority population consists mainly of the following groups: South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, Latin American, Arab, Southeast Asian, West Asian, Korean and Japanese.

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Footnote 2

“Immigrants” includes persons who are, or who have ever been, landed immigrants or permanent residents. Such persons have been granted the right to live in Canada permanently by immigration authorities. Immigrants who have obtained Canadian citizenship by naturalization are included in this category. In the 2021 Census of Population, “immigrants” includes immigrants who were admitted to Canada on or prior to May 11, 2021.

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Footnote 3

"Indigenous” includes persons who identify as First Nations (North American Indian), Métis and/or Inuk (Inuit) and/or those who report being Registered or Treaty Indians (that is, registered under the Indian Act of Canada), and/or those who report having membership in a First Nation or Indian band.

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Footnote 4

Canada at a Glance, 2022

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Footnote 5

LGB+ includes persons whose reported sexual orientation is lesbian, gay, bisexual, or another sexual orientation that is not heterosexual. Estimates of sexual orientation are based on the sexual orientation survey question that includes four response categories: Heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, and a write-in category to specify a sexual orientation. Pansexual write-in responses have been included in the bisexual category. The write-in responses that specify another sexual orientation that is not heterosexual are included in the LGB+ total; however, the sample size was too small to publish in disaggregated form.

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Footnote 6