Canadians since 2000 administered by a female majority:: Canadian women outnumber men in both the knowledge-based (since 2000) and less knowledge-based (since 1997) CPA occupations
There are now more women than men employed in both the knowledge-based (55,9 % women vs 43,6 % men) and the less knowledge-based (54,2 % women vs 45,9 % men) occupations of the Canadian Core (Federal) Public Administration (CPA).
And these figures are hiding that the real gender numbers are actually even much worse for men, as most men that are at present still working in the CPA are older and well into the over 45 years old age groups.
The coming years the outnumbering of men in the CPA will therefore further rise staggeringly as these men go on their pensions and as women outnumber men even more in the younger under 45 age groups in both the knowledge-based (48,8 % women vs 45,4 % men) and the less knowledge-based (50,0 % women vs 44,0 % men) occupations of the Canadian Core (Federal) Public Administration (CPA).
Female Employment in the Canadian Core (Federal) Public Administration (CPA)
Source: Statistics Canada — by Katarzyna Naczk - Analysis in Brief - No. 11-621-MIE2007061 - September 4, 2007
http://www.statcan.ca/bsolc/english/bsolc?catno=11-621-M2007061http://www.statcan.ca/cgi-bin/downpub/listpub.cgi?catno=11-621-MWE2007061http://www.statcan.ca/bsolc/english/bsolc?catno=11-621-M&CHROPG=1This mirrors the general increase in the number of women in the CPA between 1995 and 2006. Along with the increase of CPA employees within the knowledge-based categories, there has also been a steady increase of women working in these occupations. In fact, women became a majority in knowledge-based occupations in 2000. The shift in the less knowledge-based category occurred three years earlier. In 1997. In the case of knowledge-based workers, the shift was due to an increase in women while in the case of less knowledge-based workers, it was due to a decline in men in the CPA.
As the number of women increased in all categories of knowledge-based occupations, in 2006 women outnumbered men in two categories: the program and administrative group and the administrative and foreign services group.
Program and administrative group: Female employees in the majority
The increase in knowledge-based occupations for women can be attributed largely to a big gain of female workers in the program and administrative group. Treasury Board definitions differ slightly from those of this study. Program and administrative group consists of program administrators (PM) and administrative services (AS), whereas the administrative and foreign service group consists of financial administration (FI), information services (IS), and foreign services (FS), to name a few. The administrative support group consists of such classifications as data processing (DA), clerical and regulatory (CR), and secretarial, stenographic, and typing (ST).
In 2006, just under 29,000 women belonged to this group, an increase of about 11,000 since 1995. In contrast, the number of men in this group declined from 13,800 in 1995 to just over 11,000 in 2006.
In 1995, within the knowledge-based category, the program and administrative group was the only one to have a majority of female employees. By 2006, women accounted for 72.5% of employees in this group, up from 56.4% in 1995.
This is the only occupational group in the knowledge-based category where men experienced a significant decline, while the number of women increased substantially. However, this reversal of the number of men in this group seems to have been accompanied by an aging of this occupational group. The proportion of women aged 45 and over jumped from only 33.3% in 1995 to 55.8% in 2006. At the same time, the proportion of men in this age group rose by fewer than 5 percentage points.
Table 3 Proportion of CPA workers aged 45 and over by gender and occupational group, 1995 and 2006
Administrative and foreign service group: Second highest proportion of women
In 1995, the administrative and foreign service group was male-dominated, with 45.4% of employees being female. By 2006, 58.1% of employees were female, creating a second predominantly female group within the knowledge-based occupations category.
The administrative and foreign service group was among three groups in which the number of men remained about the same, while the number of women increased substantially. (The other two were the executive group, and the scientific and professional group.)
Following the general aging trend, the female cohort from the administrative and foreign service group aged more rapidly than the male cohort. Between 1995 and 2006, the proportion of women aged 45 and over increased by 16.4 percentage points.
Scientific and professional group: Women nearly double in number
While the number of men in the scientific and professional group remained about the same in 2006 as it was in 1995, the number of women almost doubled. During this period, the number of female employees in this group jumped from about 6,400 to over 11,400. Their proportion went from 31.5% to 44.0%.
The scientific and professional group was in fourth place out of the eight occupational groups in terms of number of female workers.
The scientific and professional group was somewhat different from the other groups in terms of the proportion of women in older age categories. Only 38.5% of the women in this group were aged 45 and over in 2006, the lowest percentage among all occupational groups. Moreover, between 1995 and 2006, this proportion increased only 7.7 percentage points. Over 55.0% of the men in this occupational group were aged 45 and over.
Computer systems group: Big gains among older women
The computer systems group was the only one where the numbers of both men and women increased significantly between 1995 and 2006. In fact, for both genders, the numbers doubled with a slight edge for women. Consequently, the proportion of women increased only slightly, from 25.5% in 1995 to 29.1% in 2006.
This group of workers is also unique with respect to aging. Between 1995 and 2006, the proportion of women aged 45 and over jumped by 27.3 percentage points. In 1995, women in this group were by far the youngest in the CPA, with only 15.5% of them aged 45 or over. In 2006, 42.8% of the women in computer systems were 45 and over.
Among men, those in this category were also the youngest in 1995, with only 26.6% aged 45 and over. By 2006, men in this category were still the youngest, even though their proportion had risen to 38.8%.
Executive group: Proportion of women doubled and the oldest group
The executive group showed the largest increase for knowledge-based occupations between 1995 and 2006 in the proportion of employees who were female. In 1995, about 19.4% of the employees were female; by 2006, this proportion had doubled to 38.8% but still remained the occupational group with the lowest female representation.
In terms of absolute numbers, the number of women nominated directors or above increased 2.5 fold during this period. In 1995, only 690 women headed a division or had higher responsibilities; but in 2006, almost 1,750 had reached that level.
Men and women in the executive group, by the nature of the job and the time it takes to have the experience and knowledge to get there, are clearly the older employees. In 2006, 76.9% of the women and 83.4% of the men were aged 45 and over. While the proportion for men aged 45 and over remained about the same as in 1995, that of women increased by over 16 percentage points.
Less knowledge-based occupations: Employment plunges by a third
The proportion of employment in the less knowledge-based occupational categories has declined since 1995. They are the group of workers who left the federal government en masse between 1995 and 1999.
Employment in the less knowledge-based occupational categories plunged by one-third, from just over 106,300 in 1995 to just over 70,600 in 2006.
Trends in employment in the CPA could partly be explained by a steady increase in occupations that rely on new technologies, those transformed by the use of computers, and a decrease in occupations which can be replaced by such technology. For instance, technologies, such as automated data capture, are being used to minimize the need for manual keying.
For the most part, the number of both men and women declined in the less knowledge-based occupations between 1995 and 2006. However, the number of women in the technical category increased slightly during this period. It had slightly more than 5,600 female employees in 2006, compared with just under 5,000 in 1995.
Consequently, women slightly outnumbered men in representation among less knowledge-based occupations in 2006 with 51.6%. However, in the administrative support group, they made up almost 81.8% of the staff.
Administrative support group: Clearly a predominantly female group
The administrative support group clearly outnumbered any other section of the less knowledgebased category. They also experienced a lost of 15,000 jobs between 1995 and 2006, the biggest decline of any group. It had the largest share of women, who accounted for 84.1% of employees in 1995 and 81.8% in 2006.
Employment declined among both men and women in this group between 1995 and 2006, but women were clearly hardest hit. They lost 14,000 jobs, compared to under 2,000 for men.
These large cuts had an important impact on the age structure in this category. The proportion of women aged 45 and over rose by 19.4 percentage points between 1995 and 2006, while it rose by almost 15 percentage points for men. By 2006, the majority of women were aged 45 and over in this occupational group.
Operational group: Small decline in number of women
While the number of men in the operational group fell by over 10,000 between 1995 and 2006, the number of women dropped by only 600. Consequently, the proportion of women increased from 13.9% to 18.9%.
The proportion of women in the operational group who were aged 45 and over showed the lowest increase, only 2.8 percentage points, between 1995 and 2006.
In 2006, only 40.8% of the women were in that age group, making it the second youngest of the eight occupational groups.
Technical group: only less knowledge-based group to increase for women
The only employees in the less knowledge-based category to increase in number between 1995 and 2006 were female technicians. The gain was modest, with just over 600 jobs.
At the same time, the number of male technicians declined. As a result, in 2006, 31.9% of the technicians were women, compared with only 19.2% in 1995.
The male technical group was the oldest among less knowledge-based workers, and only behind the executive group among all male workers in the CPA. In 2006, 62.2% of them were aged 45 and over.
Female technicians appeared to be much younger than their male counterparts. In 2006, only 44.0% of them were aged 45 or over, although this is more than double the proportion of 21.0% in 1995.
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Knowledge-based workers
Researchers have defined knowledge-based workers in many different ways. The definition for this study,
inspired by one classification proposed by Lavoie and Roy, labels certain occupational categories as more
knowledge-based.3 These include: physicists; mathematicians; chemists; civil and mechanical engineers;
biochemists; agriculturalists; ecologists; analysts; programmers; economists; accountants; lawyers, and
artists.
The majority of the occupations listed above can in general be found in the following occupational categories
defined in the CPA: scientific and professional; computer systems; program and administrative executive;
and administrative and foreign service categories. Therefore, they will be referred to as the knowledgebased
occupational categories. 4
The less knowledge-based categories are made of the CPA’s technical, operational and administrative
support categories. More specifically, less knowledge-based occupational categories include groups such as
clerical and regulatory, secretarial, stenographic and typing, engineering and scientific support, social
science support, general technician, correctional services, general labour and trades, and general services.
Students and others not classified were ignored for the occupational analysis. They represent less than 4%
of the CPA employees between 1995 and 2006.
For more details regarding the groupings see the data sources and methods section.
