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While Canada is doing relatively well in terms of female workforce participation, pay gaps persist, as women remain under-represented in high-earning roles, according to a new report from CIBC.

In the report released Tuesday, the bank’s economists note that Canada currently ranks second in the G7 in terms of female labour force participation. And, while there’s room for improvement here — as Canada still lags the world’s leaders on this metric (Iceland, Sweden and the Netherlands) and there remains a gap between men and women in Canada when it comes to workforce participation — more importantly, progress on narrowing the wage gap between men and women has “slowed dramatically in recent years,” the report noted. 

Gender pay gaps reflect several factors, including discrimination, but also differences in the types of jobs that men and women take and divergences in their career trajectories.

Ongoing educational differences are one factor in determining the types of careers that women pursue, the report noted, with female representation in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs lagging. 

For instance, the economists reported that while women earn 59% of undergraduate degrees, they only account for 40% of STEM degrees and 53% of business degrees. 

Additionally, women still appear to be running into glass ceilings in Canada. Women’s share of managerial positions in Canada hasn’t improved since 2013, while women in other countries have gained share. 

“Both the U.S. and the OECD have seen the glass ceiling become less prominent since the mid-2000s,” the report said. “That lack of progress in Canada partly explains the underperformance in closing the pay gap despite having a high participation rate for women.”

On that count, “Canada has some work to do if women are to narrow the pay gap ahead,” it said. 

Canada is already making progress on improving access to more affordable child care, which is a key factor in encouraging female workforce participation and in reducing the time spent out of the workforce for women that can hinder career progress. 

More accessible child care can help with this as “women with children won’t lose as many years of experience when their children are young, and have a better chance at breaking the glass ceiling as a result,” the report said.

But it also noted that “social and other forces are still resulting in occupational and educational choices that could impact pay rates for women less favourably … and progress towards an increasing share of women in managerial positions also appears to have stalled in Canada, while advancing elsewhere.” 

Uncovering and tackling the reasons behind the lower representation of women at higher-paying jobs within their fields “could be important in identifying what needs to be done to ensure that women are not only in the workforce, but that the economy is making full use of their talents,” the report concluded.