Statistics Canada says women remain underrepresented in management roles across the country, and that, despite improvements, a notable gender wage gap persists between women and men in both management and non-management positions.

The recent research article, Women middle and senior managers, using data from the 2021 Census of Population, examines the representation of women in these positions. It found that women hold just 42.7 per cent of middle management roles and just 30.8 per cent of senior management positions as of 2021.

The gender wage gap, meanwhile, sits at 8.7 per cent among middle managers and nine per cent for senior managers. Among non-managers, the gender wage gap was 10.5 per cent in 2021.

The report also cites research showing that 29 per cent of board seats of companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange are held by women, 10 per cent by racialized individuals, 0.9 per cent by Indigenous peoples and 0.7 per cent by people with disabilities.

Senior management 

“Unlike previous studies that have generally focused on representation at the top of companies (board directors and officers), this study sheds light on the representation of women at different management levels,” the agency’s researchers write. “Although the growth of the share of women among senior managers may indicate positive progress,” they add, “the proportion of women senior managers remains significantly lower.”

Overall, they say the underrepresentation of women was observed in all age groups and across all provinces and territories, despite the fact that women managers generally had higher levels of educational attainment than men, regardless of the occupation being studied.

Finance and insurance would appear to be one sector doing better than others: 49 per cent of middle managers were women in 2021. (Although women remain underrepresented in this sector as well, as 55 per cent of non-managers in the industry were also women.) The numbers drop off notably in senior management – only 33.7 per cent of senior managers in finance and insurance were women in 2021.