Women’s educational attainment
- It has been 150 years since the first university degree was awarded to a woman in Canada.Footnote 1 In 2021, more than 9 million women aged 15 and older had a postsecondary certificate, diploma or degree.Footnote 2
- Young women are particularly well educated, with more than 3 in 4 (76.3%) women aged 25 to 34 holding a postsecondary certificate, diploma or degree in 2021, compared with 66.1% of men in this age group.Footnote 3 Among young women, variations are observed according to different characteristics. For example, young racializedFootnote 4 women (81.7%), particularly young Chinese women (89.5%), are especially likely to hold a postsecondary certificate, diploma or degree.Footnote 5
- Although women are under-represented among all people with an earned doctorate in Canada, their representation has increased over time. In 2021, 40.7% of those with an earned doctorate in Canada were women, compared with 31.6% in 2006.Footnote 6
- From 2010/2011 to 2022/2023, the number of women enrolled in STEM programs increased by 62.0% (from 141,171 to 228,708). In comparison, the number of men enrolled in STEM programs increased by 44.0% over this period (from 249,834 to 359,763). Despite this increase, women accounted for less than two-fifths (38.9%) of women and men enrolled in STEM programs in 2022/2023.Footnote 7Footnote 8
Women in the economy
- Women’s participation in the labour force has increased significantly over the past decades. In 2024, 85.1% of women aged 25 to 54 participated in the labour force, whereas in 1976, the same was true for just over 1 in 2 (52.3%) women.Footnote 9
- From 1976 to 2024, the proportion of employed women aged 25 to 54 working full time (versus part time) also increased, from 77.6% to 84.6%. Despite this increase, women continue to be more likely than men to work part time, and in 2024, they accounted for 70.2% of all part-time workers.Footnote 10
- In the first quarter of 2025, majority women-owned businessesFootnote 11 accounted for almost 1 in 5 (19.5%) private sector businesses in Canada, up 1.9 percentage points from the first quarter of 2024 (17.6%).Footnote 12
Women as caregivers
- In 2022, women (44%) were more likely than men (40%) to report that they had provided unpaid care to children under 15 years old or to adults 15 years or older with a long-term condition or disability in the past 12 months.Footnote 13
- According to the Time Use Survey, women aged 15 and older spent, on average, 3.7 hours per day on unpaid work activities (the majority of which was spent on unpaid household work) in 2022, whereas men spent 2.6 hours per day.Footnote 14
Women and leadership and democratic participation
- In 1969, the first woman was appointed as a judge to a superior court in Canada.Footnote 15 As of 2023, almost half (46.7%) of all federally appointed judges in Canada were women.Footnote 16Footnote 17
- In 2023, women accounted for 36.3% of police personnel (full-time equivalent) in Canada—double the share (17.7%) observed in 1986.Footnote 18
Note to readers
Additional data and insights related to women and gender equality can be accessed through the Gender, Diversity, and Inclusion Statistics Hub’s new interactive dashboards.
Given that the non-binary population is small, data aggregation to a two-category gender variable is sometimes necessary to protect the confidentiality of responses. In these cases, individuals in the category “non-binary persons” are distributed into the other two gender categories. Unless otherwise indicated in the text, the category “men” includes men, as well as some non-binary persons, while the category “women” includes women, as well as some non-binary persons. A fact sheet on gender concepts, Filling the gaps: Information on gender in the 2021 Census, is available.