The Canadian Association of University Teachers /Association canadienne des professeures et professeurs d’université (CAUT/ACPPU) reports in its 2013–14 Almanac of Post-Secondary Education in Canada that in 2010-11 women were 21.1 percent of appointments. The figures include lecturers (31.8 per cent) and assistant (43.4 per cent), associate (32.6 per cent), and full professors (16.2 per cent). More recent statistics published by CAUT do not go down to the disciplinary level. CAUT first published data for gender distribution in 2004, for the period 2000-2001 and these figures reveal that the numbers of women in academic appointments in Economics has grown over time, including at professorial level.
Figure 1. Full-time Canadian University Teachers by Subject, Rank & Gender, 2000-2011, Economics
Source: Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), Almanac of Post-Secondary Education in Canada, 2004; 2008-09; 2013–14.
Since 1999 the Canadian Women Economics Network has conducted three surveys of economics departments and business schools to audit women’s representation in the discipline. In 2015, 29 economics departments and business schools responded to the survey. The survey found that women remain underrepresented in the economics academic community, with women holding one in four permanent positions in economics departments. Women made up only 14.1 percent of professorial ranked positions. Positive moves in the share of women in Associate Professor and Professor levels have been exhibited in the past decade, with the proportion of women in associate professorial levels increasing from 10.9 per cent in 1999 to 27.5 per cent in 2014-15. However the aftermath of the financial crisis saw a distinct decline in hiring that has impacted on the proportion of women at the Assistant Professor level, dropping from 31.3 per cent in 1999 to 27.1 percent in 2014-15. The survey found that there has been a boost in the share of women enrolled in the first year of a PhD from 33.7 per cent in 2013 to 41.5 per cent in 2014-15 (Canadian Women Economists Network, 2015).
Figure 2. Distribution of academic appointments in economics by position and gender, 2014-15
Source: Canadian Women Economists Network (2015, p. 5).
Figure 3. Percentage of faculty in business and economics departments in Canada who are women, by position and year, 1999, 2012-13, 2014-15, 2016-17
Source: Canadian Women Economists Network (2017, p. 4).
The 2017 follow-up survey (Canadian Women Economists Network, 2017), to which 23 university departments responded, found that women remained in a smaller share of the academic workforce. Women comprised approximately 25 per cent of all permanent employees in economics departments in Canada and only one in seven professors. While women made up 47 per cent of majors in economics, 45.5 per cent of graduating honours students, and 40 per cent of graduating PhD students, these proportions of women undergraduate and postgraduate students had not translated into increases in hiring of women in economics faculty.
The 2016-17 data supports the indication from the 2015 survey that there has been a consistent decrease in recent hires of women since 2008-09, as well as a decline in the number of Assistants overall due to the recent recession. The share of women at Assistant Professor level has steadily decreased in the last ten years, despite the proportion of women economics PhD graduates remaining relatively stable. There has, however, been a rise in the proportion of women in Associate and Professor positions since 2015, reflecting a pipeline effect as a result of a boom in hiring of women in 2001-2008 which has seen more women rising through the ranks. Due to the decrease in Assistant hiring in recent years, however, there may be a negative effect on women’s representation in higher ranking positions in years to come. This effect could be particularly pronounced in future years given the 'greater leakiness for women than for men' at the promotion points of Associate and Professor levels (p. 8).
In 2016-17, women represented 21.6 per cent of employees at Assistant level (down from 27.1 per cent in 2014-15), 29.4 per cent of Associate (up from 27.5 per cent in 2014-15) and 13.6 per cent of Professors (down from 14.1 per cent in 2014-15). However, due to a change in responding departments from 2014-15 to 2016-17, the difference in results between years should be interpreted with caution. Women represented a higher proportion of those in more precarious Instructor and Sessional Lecturer positions in 2016-17, representing 46.1 per cent and 32.8 per cent respectively, an increase from 29.5 per cent and 26.5 per cent respectively in 2014-15. Combined into the category of ‘Other’ positions, women represented 36.8 per cent of Instructors and Sessional Lecturers, up from 27.1 per cent in 2014-15. The survey also found significant variation in the proportion of women in tenured or tenure track economics positions at different universities, with the lowest being around 10 per cent and the highest being closer to 40 per cent.
References
Canadian Association of University Teachers /Association canadienne des professeures et professeurs d’université (2004; 2008-09; 2013–14) CAUT Almanac of Post-Secondary Education in Canada.
Canadian Women Economists Network (2017) CWEN/RFÉ Report on the Status of Women in Canadian Economics, 2017. Canadian Women Economists Network.
Canadian Women Economists Network (2015) CWEN/RFÉ Report on the Status of Women in Canadian Economics, 2015. Canadian Women Economists Network.
Canadian Association of University Teachers /Association canadienne des professeures et professeurs d’université (2013–14) CAUT Almanac of Post-Secondary Education in Canada.