It's great to see some recognition for
BC's Top 100 Influential Women, although there are obviously many more unsung women out there using influence to make change and improve the lives of many. As noted by comments on the article below, women outside of Vancouver and Victoria are not represented in the rankings.
As another story also notes, the
Progress Should be Celebrated, but a Gender Gap Continues Daphne Bramham, Vancouver Sun,
October 29, 2010.
Excerpts:
“Low gender gaps are directly correlated with high economic competitiveness,” Klaus Schwab, the forum’s founder and executive chairman, said last week when the annual gender gap index was released. “
Women and girls must be treated equally if a country is to grow and prosper.”
Schwab went on to say: “We still need a true gender equality revolution, not only to mobilize a major pool of talent both in terms of volume and quality, but also to create a more compassionate value system within all our institutions.”
• Nearly half the companies in Canada have no female directors on their boards and only 3.2 per cent of companies had a chairwoman in 2009, down from the previous year.
• Slightly more than a third of senior management jobs are held by women even though women account for nearly half of the labour force.
• The gender wage gap remains. The average woman working full-time in 2008 earned 71.3 cents for every dollar the average full-time male worker received. In 1980, it was 64 cents of every dollar men earned.
When it comes to political representation, Canada dropped one spot in 2010 to 51st in the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s ranking of 186 countries.
Women still account for only 22.1 per cent of the seats in Parliament...
In 2007, nearly three-quarters of degrees, diplomas and certificates awarded by Canadian universities went to women. More than half of all master’s degrees went to women and 44.5 per cent of the doctorates.
More than half the students on university and college campuses are women. They form the majority not only in education, nursing and arts — which have traditionally had more female students — but also in the medical and law schools.
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Women in politics and communityWomen in communications and mediaWomen in in business and leadershipWomen in arts and cultureWomen in social activism, human rights and philanthropyWomen in sportsWomen in science and medicine*********************************************
Want to know more about how Canada compares to other nations for Gender Parity, see the World Economic Forum's
Gender Gap 2010 report by the
Global Gender Parity Group.
Canada is ranked 20 in narrowing the gender gap, behind nations such as South Africa, Lesotho, Sri Lanka, Latvia, the Phillipines and the United States. See rankings below for more details.
Full Report (PDF)
Rankings: PDF I excel
Country Profiles and Highlights
News release
The Corporate Gender Gap Report***********************************************
Career Interrupted: The Economic Impact of MotherhoodTD Bank,
October 12, 2010.
This special report helps explain some of the careers impacts of motherhood for women in Canada. The persistent lack of a national child care program is one of the biggest reasons that impacts women's participation in the labour force.
