Highlights

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• Slightly more than half of all people living in Canada are women or female children. In 2004, there were a total of 16.1 million females in Canada, representing 50.4% of the overall population that year. Women constitute a particularly large segment of the senior population in Canada. In 2004, women made up 69% of all persons aged 85 and older, 59% of those aged 75 to 84, and 53% of people aged 65 to 74.
• There were a total of 2.8 million foreign-born females living in Canada in 2001. Together, they made up 19% of the country’s total female population that year.
• In 2001, over 2 million women, 14% of the total female population, identified themselves as being members of a visible minority. Visible minority women are centered largely in Toronto and Vancouver. That year, 62% of all females in a visible minority in Canada resided in one of these two metropolitan areas. Indeed, 37% of all female residents of both cities were part of a visible minority.
• In 2001, just under a half million women, 3% of the total female population, reported they were one of North American Indian, Métis, or Inuit.
• There has been a sharp drop in the proportion of women living with their spouse in the past couple of decades. In 2001, 48% of women aged 15 and over were partners in a husband-wife family, down from 56% in 1981. In the same period, the proportion of women living in a common-law union more than doubled, rising from just 4% in 1981 to 9% in 2001.
• There has also been an increase in the proportion of women who are lone parents from 5% in the early 1970s to 9% in 2001. Indeed, in 2001, there were over 1 million female-headed lone-parent families in Canada. That year, 20% of families with children were headed by a female lone parent, double the figure in 1971.
• More women are living alone. In 2001, over one and a half million women, 14% of the total female population aged 15 and over, were living alone, more than double the total in 1971. Seniors are the most likely women to live alone. In 2001, 38% of all women aged 65 and over were living on their own.
• There has been a dramatic decline in the birth rate among Canadian women over the course of the past four decades. In 2002, there were just 41 births for every 1,000 woman in Canada aged 15 to 49, barely a third the figure in 1959. While most of this occurred in the 1960s, the birth rate in Canada has again edged downward in recent years.
• The large majority of the female population living at home describe their general health in positive terms. In 2003, 88% of the female population aged 12 and over said their health was either excellent (22%), very good (36%) or good (30%). At the same time, though, 12% reported their health was either fair or poor. That year, though, 32% of women aged 75 and over reported their health status as only fair or poor.
• While most women report their overall health is relatively good, in 2003, 74% of the female population living in a private household had at least one chronic health condition or problem. Again, the proportion of women who report chronic or degenerative health problems rises with age.
• Females make up the majority of the Canadian population with disabilities. In 2001, 13.3% of Canadian females had a disability. The likelihood of women having disabilities increases with age. Indeed, that year, 72% of all women 85 years and over had disabilities, while the figures were 50% among women aged 75 to 84 and 32% for women aged 65 to 74. As well, just over 800,000 women, nearly 7% of all women aged 15 and over, had disabilities which were considered severe or very severe.
• Females in Canada have a longer life expectancy than males. Female children born in 2001, for example, could expect to live an average of 82 years, whereas the average life expectancy of male children born that year was just 77 years. Since 1981, however, gains in life expectancy among females have only been about half those experienced by males.
• The long-term increase in the life expectancy of females is a reflection of declines in the overall female death rate. Overall, in 2002, there were 486 deaths for every 100,000 females, down 10% from the figure in 1993, once the effect of changes in the age structure of the female population have been accounted for. The decline in the age-standardized death rate for women in this period was somewhat smaller than that among men, although death rates among females are still over 50% lower than they are among males.
• Heart disease and cancer accounted for over half of all female deaths in 2002. There have, however, been considerable differences in the long-term trends for heart disease and cancer deaths among the female population in the past two decades. On the one hand, the age-standardized death rate due to heart disease among women has fallen since the late 1970s, whereas the rate for cancer has not changed significantly.
• While there has been no significant change in the overall cancer death rate among the female population in the past couple of decades, the death rate due to lung cancer for females in 2001 was more than twice the figure in 1979. In contrast, the age-standardized lung cancer death rate among men declined 10% in the same period, although the lung cancer death rate among women is still only about half that of men.
• There has been a gradual decline in the age-standardized death rate from breast cancer among the female population in the past two decades, although breast cancer accounts for the largest share of new cases of cancer among women.
• There has been a sharp decline in the share of the population which smokes over the past three decades. In 2003, 21% of all women aged 15 and over were current smokers, down from 38% in 1970. Among women, young adults are the most likely to smoke cigarettes. There has, however, been a sharp decline in the smoking rates among both female teenagers and women aged 20 to 24 in recent years. This reversed the trend in the 1990s when the percentage of young women smoking increased sharply.
• There has been a dramatic increase in the proportion of the female population with a university degree in the past several decades. In 2001, 15% of women aged 15 and over had a university degree, up from just 3% in 1971. Women, though, are still slightly less likely than men to have a university degree, although the gap is currently much smaller than in the past.
• While almost as many women as men currently are university graduates, female representation among those with a degree declines sharply among those with postgraduate training. In 2001, women made up 52% of all those with a Bachelor’s or first professional degree, whereas they represented just 27% of those with an earned doctorate.
• The overall difference in the proportions of women and men with a university degree is likely to close even further in the future as women currently make up the majority of full-time students in Canadian universities. In the 2001-02 academic year, 57% of all full-time university students were female, up from 37% in 1972-73. Again, though, women’s share of full-time university enrolment declines the higher the level of study.
• Women also currently make up the majority of full-time students in most university departments. However, females continue to account for much smaller shares of full-time enrolment in mathematics and science faculties. In 2001-02, women made up only 30% of all university students in mathematics and physical sciences, and just 24% of those in engineering and applied sciences.
• The increased participation of women in the paid work force has been one of the most significant social trends in Canada in the past quarter century. In 2004, 58% of all women aged 15 and over were part of the paid work force, up from 42% in 1976. In contrast, the proportion of men who were employed fell during this period from 73% to 68%. As a result, women accounted for 47% of the employed workforce in 2004, up from 37% in 1976.
• There have been particularly dramatic increases in the employment levels of women with very young children. Indeed, by 2004, 65% of all women with children under age 3 were employed, more than double the figure in 1976. Similarly, 70% of women whose youngest child was aged 3 to 5 worked for pay or profit in 2004, up from 37% in 1976.
• The share of female lone parents with jobs has risen dramatically over the last three decades. In 2004, 68% of female lone parents were employed, whereas the figure was under 50% in 1976.
• Employed women are far more likely than their male counterparts to lose time from their jobs because of personal or family responsibilities.
• Women are also much more likely than their male counterparts to work part-time. In 2004, 27% of the total female workforce were part-time employees, compared with just 11% of employed men. Indeed, women currently account for about seven in 10 of all part-time employees, a figure which has not changed appreciably since the mid-1970s.
• The majority of employed women continue to work in occupations in which women have traditionally been concentrated. In 2004, 67% of all employed women were working in teaching, nursing and related health occupations, clerical or other administrative positions, and sales and service occupations. In fact, there has also been virtually no change in the proportion of women employed in these traditionally female-dominated occupations over the past decade.
• Women have increased their representation in several professional fields in recent years. Indeed, women currently make up over half those employed in both diagnostic and treating positions in medicine and related health professions and in business and financial professional positions.
• There has also been a long-term increase in the share of women employed in managerial positions. In 2004, 37% of all those employed in managerial positions were women, up from 30% in 1987. All of this growth, though, occurred in the early part of this period. Indeed, the share of management positions accounted for by women actually dipped slightly in the period from 1996 to 2004. As well, among managers, women tend to be better represented in lower-level positions as opposed to those at more senior levels. Women also continue to remain very much a minority among professionals employed in the natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics.
• While a growing number of women are part of the paid workforce in Canada, many women also participate in their communities through formal volunteer activities. In 2003, over 4.5 million Canadian women aged 15 and over, 35% of the total female population, did unpaid work for a volunteer organization. That year, women made up 54% of all those doing unpaid volunteer work through a formal organization.
• Women generally have lower incomes than men. In 2003, the average annual pre-tax income of women aged 15 and over from all sources was $24,400, just 62% the figure for men. The average income of women in 2003, though, was 13% higher than the figure in 1997, once the effects of inflation have been factored out, whereas the real average income of men rose 8% in the same period.
• The average earnings of employed women are still substantially lower than those of men, even when employed full-time. In 2003, women working fulltime, full-year had average earnings of $36,500, or 71% what men employed full-time, full-year made that year. As well, the gap between the earnings of women and men has not changed substantially in the past decade.
• Women make up a disproportionate share of the population in Canada with low incomes. Unattached women are particularly likely to have low incomes. In 2003, 31% of unattached women aged 16 and over had incomes below the after-tax Low-Income Cut-offs, while this was the case for 28% of their male counterparts.
• Seniors are the least likely unattached women to have low incomes. Indeed, the incidence of low income among unattached senior women has dropped sharply since the early 1980s. In 2003, 19% of these women were classified as having after-tax low incomes, down from 57% in 1980.
• Families headed by female lone parents also have relatively high rates of low income. In 2003, 38% of all families headed by lone-parent mothers had incomes which fell below the after-tax Low Income Cut-offs. In comparison, this was the case for 13% of male lone-parent families and just 7% of nonelderly two-parent families with children. The incidence of low income among female-headed lone-parent families, however, has declined somewhat from the period from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s when the figure hovered around 50%.
• As a result, lone-parent families headed by women continue to be home to a disproportionate share of all children living in low-income situations. In 2003, 43% of all children in a low-income family were living with a single female parent, whereas these families accounted for only 13% of all children under age 18 that year.
• Women’s involvement in the criminal justice system has traditionally been more as victims of crime rather than as perpetrators. In 2004, women were charged with committing 17% of all crime in Canada, whereas they represented 51% of all victims of violent crime reported to a sample of police forces.
• Women are considerably more likely than men to be victims of violent crimes such as sexual assault and criminal harassment. Indeed, in 2004, there were over six times as many female victims of sexual assault as male victims. Similarly, women were over three times more likely than men to be victims of criminal harassment.
• The majority of assaults against women are perpetrated by someone they know. In 2004, the assailants in 70% of violent incidents committed against women were either relatives or acquaintances. In fact, women are particularly likely to be victimized by a current or former spouse, a current or former partner in a dating relationship, or a family member.
• Relatively equal proportions of women and men experienced some form of physical or sexual violence by a common-law or marital partner in the past five years. There has been no change in the overall level of spousal violence reported by those who were married or living common-law during the past five years. However, women and men experience very different types of spousal violence and the impact of the violence is more serious for women than men.
• Women who had been in contact with a previous partner in the past five years are considerably more likely than those in a current relationship to be victims of spousal violence. In 2004, 21% of women who had been in contact with a former spouse in this time period reported some form of abuse, whereas this was the case for just 3% of women in a current relationship. Aboriginal women are more than three times more likely to be victims of spousal violence than their non-Aboriginal counterparts.
• Women are also more likely to be victims of stalking than men. In fact, an estimated 1.4 million women, more than one in 10 of the total female population, reported that they had been stalked in the past five years in a way that caused them to fear for their lives or the safety of someone known to them.
• Women are only about half as likely as men to be murdered. As with other types of victimization, however, women are much more likely than male victims to be killed by someone they know, particularly a family member. Indeed, 37% of all female homicide victims in 2004 were killed by a spouse or former spouse. While the number of women killed annually by a current or former spouse continues to be higher than the number of men killed by a spouse, the spousal homicide rate has fallen for both women and men over the past two and a half decades.
• Women make up less than one in five Canadians charged with a criminal offense. In 2004, women made up only 18% of adults charged with a criminal code offence. The share of criminal activity accounted for by women, though, has risen somewhat in the past few decades.
• Women between the ages of 15 and 18 years old have much higher levels of criminal activity than adult women. Crime rates among young women, though, are still much lower than they are among their male counterparts.