Representation of women in officer positions, 2016 to 2019
Released: 2022-10-17
Today, Statistics Canada is releasing new data on the gender composition of executives, focusing on people who occupied officer positions in Canada from 2016 to 2019. These data are an extension of the release titled "Representation of women on boards of directors, 2019," which highlights women directors in strategic decision-making roles in corporations conducting business in Canada.
Generally, officers are appointed by directors to lead the day-to-day operations of a corporation.
The 2019 dataset contained a total of 19,044 officers, 30.7% of whom were women. Although the total number of officers was higher in 2016 (27,004), the proportion of women officers (29.0%) was lower. This change represents a 5.8% increase in the proportion of women officers since 2016.
In contrast, the proportion of women on boards of directors was lower than that of women officers. In 2019, fewer than one in five (19.2%) seats on boards of directors were occupied by women, a share that was lower in 2016, when 17.8% of directors were women.
Additional information and other studies and statistics related to gender and enterprises can be found in the Gender, Diversity and Inclusion Statistics Hub, the Business performance and ownership statistics portal and in the Representation of women on boards of directors and in officer positions: Visualization tool.
Chart 1
Representation of women in officer positions, 2016 to 2019
Women are less likely than men to be represented in top officer positions
The officer dataset contains two subcategories: top officers and other officers.
The top officer category consists of people who held the positions of chairperson, president, vice-president and executive vice-president. The other officer category is composed, among others, of people who held the positions of secretary, assistant secretary and treasurer. The breakdown of subcategories allowed for comparability with information published by private organizations, such as the Diversity Disclosure Practices report published by Osler.
Women officers were about 3.5 times less likely than men officers to occupy top officer positions. Among all top officers (7,331), fewer than one in four (22.7%) positions were held by women in 2019, while slightly more than three in four (77.3%) top officer positions were occupied by men that same year.
In the same dataset, there were a total of 11,713 officers in the other officer category. Slightly more than one in three (35.6%) positions were held by women, whereas almost two in three (64.4%) positions were occupied by men.
Women are more likely to occupy lower top-level roles
Although the representation of women in the top officer category was much lower compared with the representation of men top officers in 2019, the share of women top officers exhibited an increase every year from 2016 to 2019. From 2016 to 2019, there was growth (+15.7%) in the share of women in top officer positions.
Even with the growth, women in the top officer category had a higher representation in the lower top-level positions compared with men, who had a higher representation in all top officer category positions. Specifically, 1.9% of officers holding the chairperson role of a company were women, while almost all (98.1%) officers holding that position were men. The vice-president position, which is one of the lower top-level positions in this category, showed the highest representation of women (25.3%) compared with the proportion of men (74.7%).
The executive vice-president position showed the highest growth (+31.6%) in the share of women in the top officer category from 2016 to 2019 (from 18.4% to 24.2%).
Chart 2
Representation of women in the top officer category, 2019
Women are the most represented in the other officer category
Despite 2019 having fewer women officers (4,175) compared with 2016 (5,769) in the other officer category, the representation was relatively stable in 2019 (35.6%) compared with 2016 (35.0%). This subcategory had a higher representation of women compared with the top officer category.
In the other officer category, women were more likely to occupy assistant-secretary positions, with the 2019 dataset showing that more than half (55.1%) of officers were women. Whereas men officers were the most represented (75.6%) in treasurer positions.
The auditor position showed the largest decline (-30.8%) in the share of women officers, decreasing from 43.3% in 2016 to 30.0% in 2019.
Chart 3
Representation of women in the other officer category, 2019
Note to readers
Data sources and methodology
The Corporations Returns Act (CRA) program collects financial and ownership data on corporations conducting business in Canada for public, private and government businesses. Corporations are included in the sample if their gross revenues for a fiscal period exceed $200 million, their assets exceed $600 million or their long-term debt or equity owing to non-residents exceeds a book value of $1 million.
However, while these data are used to understand the domestic and foreign residence of officers, they cannot provide information on the gender profile of these individuals.
To identify the gender of these officers, a two-step process was undertaken.
First, the data were integrated, where possible, with gender data from the Derived Record Depository (DRD), a national dynamic relational database containing only the basic personal identifiers of Canadians. The DRD was built by integrating information from administrative data files available at Statistics Canada, including the T1 Personal Master file, for the purpose of facilitating the integration of data from other files.
Then, for the records that could not be integrated, probabilistic imputation was employed using available information about the officers.
The data obtained through the CRA program are used to evaluate the extent of foreign control in the Canadian economy and are summarized in an annual report to Parliament. To release information from the CRA program, Statistics Canada must receive approval from Parliament.
The corporations targeted by the CRA represent a subsample of the total population of incorporated enterprises operating in Canada, which are included in the Annual Financial and Taxation Statistics for Enterprises (AFTS). The CRA program publishes statistical estimates at the legal entity level, while the AFTS disseminates statistical estimates at the enterprise level. Because the AFTS assets are consolidated, there is an over-representation of assets in the CRA when compared with the assets in the AFTS.
Due to changes and improvements in the CRA data collection process, the 2019 dataset was smaller than previous years (19,044 officers compared with 22,905 in 2018).
Definition
Executives: Individuals who occupy a leadership and strategic decision-making role within an enterprise, and who contributes either as a board director or as an officer.
Directors: Individuals responsible for supervising the activities of a corporation and for making decisions for those corporations
Officers: Individuals responsible for leading the day-to-day operations of a corporation.
- Top officers: Individuals who occupy one of the following positions: chairperson, president, vice president and executive vice president.
- Other officers: Individuals who occupy one of the following positions: secretary, assistant secretary, treasurer, assistant treasurer, secretary treasurer, controller, auditor, and others.
Table
The data table used for this analysis (33-10-0501-01) is available today.
Visualization tool
The Representation of women on boards of directors and in officer positions: Visualization tool is a comprehensive analytical tool that presents annual changes to the representation of women and men on boards of directors and in officer positions in Canada.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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