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June 6, 2023 – Women’s labour market and employment outcomes have improved significantly since the pandemic; however, they still continue to face gaps compared to men, according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute.

In “Juggling Act: Women, Work and Closing the Gaps with Men,” the C.D. Howe Institute’s Parisa Mahboubi and Tingting Zhang examine labour force participation and employment outcomes among women, exploring how they fared before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact of the pandemic on their working lives and how to improve their outcomes.

Mahboubi and Zhang find that the pandemic disproportionately affected women – leading to a large drop in their employment, labour force participation and hours worked, mainly due to their overrepresentation in vulnerable services-producing industries and increased caregiving responsibilities for children, the elderly or dependent family members.

Compared to the 2008/09 financial crisis, women were hit harder in the pandemic recession since the financial crisis heavily impacted goods-producing industries where only about 11 percent of women worked. In contrast, a higher proportion of women worked in industries impacted by the pandemic (accommodation and food services, wholesale and retail trade, and information, culture and recreation).

Although employment recovery was initially slower for women, women’s employment increased by 5 percent between February 2020 and 2023. More women also joined the labour force, and their participation rate surpassed pre-pandemic levels – reaching 62 percent in February 2023. As well, there was an employment shift from lower-paying sectors to higher-paying ones. In particular, there was a 15 percent decline in women working in accommodation and food services in 2022 compared to 2019, while their employment increased by 23 percent in utilities and 21 percent in professional and technical services.

“However, despite all these improvements in women’s outcomes, the gender gap in participation and employment remains,” says Mahboubi.

Notably, the authors find that the gender participation gap is the largest among the senior population (ages 55 and older). Additionally, among women aged 25 to 54 not in the labour market, the number of those who wanted to work rose from 8.8 percent in February 2020 to 9.5 percent in February 2023, and that personal and family responsibilities were cited as the main reasons for not participating. As well, for those working part-time, caring for children was the main reason why they did not seek full-time employment.

Mahboubi and Zhang also find that there are gender differences in job characteristics depending on employment type, occupation and industry. For example, women are overrepresented in part-time employment and underrepresented in some in-demand jobs, such as skilled trades, and in high-paying occupations like science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as well as in management occupations.

“Reducing disparities in gender participation and employment rates and encouraging women to work in in-demand and high-paying jobs would help mitigate aging’s impact on Canada’s labour force growth, address labour and skills shortages, and strengthen the economy,” says Zhang. “This requires encouraging greater labour force participation and removing employment barriers for women who wish to work, especially older women and those with children.”

To improve women’s outcomes, Mahboubi and Zhang make three key recommendations:

  • Better childcare policies for increasing accessibility to affordable and good-quality childcare services;
  • Improvements to women’s workforce development that address underrepresentation of women in STEM and the skilled trades; and
  • Flexible work arrangements to improve the retention and attraction of women.

“Investments in the labour market outcomes of women are essential to Canada’s continuous prosperity and inclusive growth,” conclude Mahboubi and Zhang.

Read the Full Report

For more information contact: Parisa Mahboubi, Senior Policy Analyst, C.D. Howe Institute; Tingting Zhang, Junior Policy Analyst, C.D. Howe Institute; or Lauren Malyk, Communications Officer, 416-865-1904 Ext. 0247, lmalyk@cdhowe.org

The C.D. Howe Institute is an independent not-for-profit research institute whose mission is to raise living standards by fostering economically sound public policies. Widely considered to be Canada's most influential think tank, the Institute is a trusted source of essential policy intelligence, distinguished by research that is nonpartisan, evidence-based and subject to definitive expert review.