Knowledge Center

Women at the Top

  • Women’s representation in Fortune 500 leadership positions has stagnated in recent years.
 

 

 

  • Women’s representation in Financial Post 500 leadership positions has slowly increased in recent years.

WOMEN’S SHARE OF FINANCIAL POST 500 LEADERSHIP

The Canadian Labour Force

In 2011:

  • Women ages 15 and older made up 47.3% of the labour force.1
    • 62.3% of all women 16 years and over were in the labor force compared to 71.5% of all men. 2
    • 56.2% of visible minority women aged 15 and over reported being part of the paid workforce in the 2006 Census.3
  • In January 2012, women comprised 35.4% of all management positions and 22.9% of all senior management positions.4
    • In 2006, visible minority women made up 7% of management positions.5
  • Employment rates for mothers with children under the age of 6 have more than doubled since 1976, from 31.5% to 68.1% in 2007.6
    • In 2007, 79.5% of mothers with school age children worked outside the home--approaching the employment rate for women with no children at home (80.9%).7

The U.S. Labor Force

  • In 2012:
    • Women made up 46.9% of the labor force.8
    • 57.7% of all women 16 years and over were in the labor force, compared to 70.2% of all men. 9
  • Women comprised 51.5% of management, professional and related positions.10

 

  • In 2011:
    • 55.8% of all mothers with children under the age of 1 were in the labor force11
    • The labor force participation rate of parents with children under the age of 18 was 70.6% for mothers and 93.5% for fathers.12

Women in Law

  • In the U.S., for the 2009-2010 academic year, women made up 47.2% of law school students.13
  • In 2011, women were 31.9% of all lawyers.14

 

  • In Canada in 2009, women were 37.4% of all lawyers for whom gender data was recorded. 15

Women and MBAs

  • Women in the U.S. earned 36.8% of MBAs in 2010-2011.16
  • Women in Canada earned 34.5% of MBA in 2010-2011.17

* The terminology was changed from "corporate officer" to "senior officer" in 2010 in an attempt to standardize across company type and provide Catalyst with more robust data. Catalyst has not found a statistically discernable difference in the overall officer population using these two terms.

 

How to cite this product: Catalyst. Catalyst Quick Take: Statistical Overview of Women in the Workplace. New York: Catalyst, 2013.

9 Reader Comments

Rosa I. Rivera says:
1/6/2013 12:19:49

Where can I find information specific to Hispanic women in the Department of Veterans Affairs. I have found literature published by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion about the underrepresentation of Hispanic women in the Department of Veterans Affairs' workforce.

Cheryl Yanek says:
1/9/2013 12:21:25

Hi Rosa,

The best thing to do is contact the Department of Veteran Affairs directly:
http://www.va.gov/landing2_contact.htm

The Veteran Population Table on their website has some information by race/ethnicity:
http://www.va.gov/vetdata/Veteran_Population.asp

In the future, if you have a question, fill out this form directly - we'll see it a lot faster - and easier!
http://www.catalyst.org/what-we-do/services/ask-catalyst

Best,
Cheryl Yanek
Senior Associate Librarian, Catalyst

koren says:
1/30/2013 02:27:10

I am interested in the prevalence of paternity leave in the US versus countries where it is more accepted and that affect on the female presence in leadership positions

Cheryl Yanek says:
2/19/2013 04:30:47

Hi Koren,

I suggest you check out our Family Leave Quick Take to start.
http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/family-leave-us-canada-and-global

If you have further questions, feel free to email the Catalyst Information Center at
catalyst_IC@ask-catalyst.org


Best,
Cheryl Yanek
Senior Associate Librarian
Catalyst

Renee Shanker says:
3/18/2013 01:48:57

Hi, Cheryl,
In my workplace, 25 consecutive years of service is rewarded by granting employees an additional week of vacation time. Employees who have a "break in service" lose this benefit.
I would like to demonstrate that this policy is biased against women because women are more likely to have breaks in service due to caregiving than are men. Are there any statistics available to support this?
Thank you for your help.
Renee

Cheryl's picture
Cheryl says:
4/5/2013 09:58:35

Hi Renee,

A lot of countries or companies or positions have rules that require a certain amount of years. As you can see by our Women Leaving and Re-Entering the Workplace Quick Take (http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-leaving-and-re-entering-workforce), women do take time out of the workplace, so these delays could definitely cause challenges and biases for women.

If you want further information, please fill out this form:
http://www.catalyst.org/what-we-do/services/ask-catalyst
as that is the best mechanism for us answering your question. This is mainly a place to make comments, not questions. (We'll answer you a lot more quickly if you fill out the form.)

Good luck,
Cheryl

Glenn says:
4/4/2013 02:42:24

I like how this article is written. It is a direct representation of statistics allowing the readers to draw conclusions. I'd suspect most readers come across this page looking for data to back an agenda. To chime in with my conclusions:
1) With 71% of mothers and 94% of fathers working, who is raising our children? I don't care if it's the mother or the father, but we need to be investing more of our time in our most valuable national resource - our future talent pool. That can't be outsourced or left to a school system that doesn't seem to be providing results.
2) Women are over-represented in management/professional positions. Women are 47% of the workforce, but 51% of the management/professional positions in the US. Women are then only ~15-20% of senior positions. That number seems to identify a problem. It is interesting that 37% of MBAs were earned by women even though they are 47% of the workforce. The statistic that is missing that might help explain the executive gap is the % of women with MBAs who remain in the workforce. If only 60% of women with MBAs work, then the executive number is in line with education. If that number isn't so high, then there is either a potential problem with decision making for hiring at the executive level.

It's also good to note that these are high-level statistics. To really get understanding one would need to drill down into more details. For example, the stats show that 56% of our infants are likely home with someone other than their mother or father. Chances are that the nanny or daycare provider is a woman. That would then drive up the % of women in the workforce. I think when many people read % of women in the workforce they are thinking of corporate America, not daycare. Now I'm not sure if the % of women in the workforce includes daycare or sole proprietor cleaning companies which in my area seem to be women dominated. I also don't think we have visibility into how that translates into 51% of women holding the management/professional positions. They are statistics that are generally not fully understood unless you are willing to drill down into the sources and the details.

Cheryl's picture
Cheryl says:
4/5/2013 12:27:25

Hi Glenn,

A lot of these statistics are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, so I’d really suggest you contact them for specific questions about methodology and statistical process. You can see all the sources of the Quick Takes and determine the source.

Here’s the contact info for the BLS:
http://www.bls.gov/bls/contact.htm


For more on working parents, you should def check out our Working Parents Quick Take which might answer some of your questions about working parents.
http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/working-parents


Part of the reason women don’t break into some of these upper management roles is due to the glass ceiling, as well as workplace barriers. You might find some of our research, like our Double Bind Study (http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/double-bind-dilemma-women-leadership-damned-if-you-do-doomed-if-you-dont-0) or our Women Take Care, Men Take Charge study that looks at gender stereotypes (http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-take-care-men-take-charge-stereotyping-us-business-leaders-exposed).

If you have further questions, please do not comment here but rather fill out this form (http://www.catalyst.org/what-we-do/services/ask-catalyst) and one of our librarians will promptly respond to your inquiry.

Best,
Cheryl Yanek
Senior Associate Librarian

Caroline Turner says:
4/18/2013 11:43:49

I check your studies regularly. Sadly, the progress continues to be slow. Thank you for providing hard data and being a catalyst for moving the dial! www.difference-works.com

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