In 2009, 28% of Canadian women aged 25 to 54 had a bachelor or
postgraduate university degree, double the proportion two decades prior
(14% in 1990). This increase surpassed
that for men over the same period (up from 17% to 25% between 1990 and
2006), such that a smaller proportion of men than women had a university
degree in 2009. Among the provinces, women in BC and Ontario were the
most likely to have a university degree, while those in Newfoundland and
New Brunswick were the least. There are numerous factors that ex-plain
the disparity between education levels among men and women in the
provinces, including the fact that some regions of the country attract
university graduates born elsewhere.
In the 2008 school year, 62% of Canadian
university undergraduates were women and the proportion of female
Master’s graduates reached 54%. At the PhD level, female
students remain in the minority (44% in 2008), though the share has been
climbing significantly over the past decade. Women and men tend to
choose different fields of study. In 2008, women accounted for over
three quarters of the graduates in education and health sciences
programs and two thirds of graduates in humanities, visual & performing
arts, communications technologies, social sciences, behavioural sciences
and law. Conversely, women remain far less likely to enrol in
architecture, engineering, mathematics, computer and information
sciences programs.
In 2005, women aged 35 to 39 with a
Masters or doctorate degree working full-year, full-time, earned an
average of $60,342 per year, whereas their male counterparts earned
substantially more ($72,201), a ratio of approximately 84 cents on the
dollar. However, the gap is not nearly as wide among younger workers (aged 25 to
29), where women with a doctorate or Masters degree earned 96 cents for
each dollar earned by their male counterparts.
