Assessing the Status of Women on the Faculties of Canadian Universities

The Council of Canadian Academies recently released a new report on the status of women on the faculties of Canadian universities. The report notes that women reached parity in higher education enrollments in Canada in 1989 and now make up a majority of students in bachelor’s and master’s degree programs and are nearly equal to men in enrollment in doctoral degree programs. Yet, women have not made equal progress in faculty posts.

The data shows that there are 11,064 women with a Ph.D. degree who are employed on the faculties of Canadian universities. This is slightly less than half the number of men with Ph.D.s who hold faculty positions. And the percentage of women in faculty positions goes down as one moves up the faculty ladder. Women are 42.6 percent of the assistant professors but only 21.7 percent of the full professors. Most notably, in 2008, when the first Canada Excellence Research Chairs were announced, not one of the 19 appointees was a woman.

The small number of women faculty is most notable in STEM-related fields. While women hold 32 percent of all faculty posts, they are only 14.8 percent of the faculty in STEM disciplines.

The full report, Strengthening Canada’s Research Capacity: The Gender Dimension, may be downloaded here.