International Women’s Day: Numbers too big to ignore

Back in 1972, Helen Reddy sang “I am woman, hear me roar.”

Fifty years later, we’ve got “numbers too big to ignore.”

Every quarter since the spring of 2020, we have asked Canadian businesses how they have been coping during the pandemic, and about their outlook for the future. In early 2022, we also asked businesses what role women play in their organizations.

Results show that, on average, almost 4 in 10 senior management positions (36.8%) are occupied by women, as well as nearly half (46.3%) of all other management positions.

Nearly two-thirds (63.4%) of senior managers at non-profit organizations across Canada are women, the highest level among sectors, followed by the public (53.9%) and private (34.8%) sectors.

Women are most likely to be senior managers in health care and social assistance (65.0%). Almost half of senior managers in accommodation and food services (48.0%), real estate and rental leasing (45.0%), and retail trade (45.0%) businesses are women.

Women account for nearly two-fifths of the senior managers in businesses open for two years or less (39.2%). This ratio falls to 38.0% for businesses operating from 3 to 10 years, and to approximately one-third for businesses operating for 11 years or more.

The numbers are even stronger at other managerial levels. About 7 in 10 middle and junior managers at non-profit organizations (71.0%) across Canada are women, as are over half of those working in the public sector (55.1%). Over two-fifths of the other managers in the private sector are women (44.6%).

The highest representation of women in senior management (78.2%) is found in businesses majority-owned by women. Nearly two-fifths of the senior management positions in businesses majority-owned by visible minorities are staffed by women (39.0%).

Women also account for approximately one-third of senior managers at businesses majority-owned by immigrants and businesses majority-owned by First Nations, Métis or Inuit people.