Recognition
Women making big career gainsWomen have made big job gains in the federal bureaucracy in recent years, but they're still a minority in government executive suites, according to the latest figures from Statistics Canada. |
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 [ 2007-09-26 ] |
(Comstock)
Women now hold more than half the knowledge-based jobs in the federal public service, Statistics Canada reported this month.
The makeup of the core public administration -- the 178,000 public servants who work for the Treasury Board -- has changed dramatically in the last decade, with women making the greatest gains.
When it comes to knowledge-based jobs -- involving computer systems, and scientific and professional occupations -- women held 55.9% of positions in 2006, compared with 43.6% in 1995.
The number of those knowledge-based jobs jumped by 25,000 over the decade, to nearly 103,000 in 2006.
The report said women's gains came mainly in what is called the program and administrative group, where they held 72.5% of the jobs in 2006, compared with 56.4% in 1995.
The number of women in that group jumped by almost two-thirds, while the number of men declined by a fifth.
"In 2006, nearly 29,000 women belonged to this group; an increase of about 11,000 or 61.1%, since 1995," the study said. "In contrast, the number of men in this group declined 20.3%, from 13,800 in 1995, to just over 11,000 in 2006."
Although the percentage of women in executive jobs doubled between 1995 and 2006, they held only 38.8% of the positions -- the lowest female participation level of any occupational group.
The report says all the gains may be due to technical changes in the workplace and the generally higher participation of women in the workforce.
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