This is the first in a series of blog posts looking at the myths that act as barriers to women’s advancement in the workplace. These myths were discussed in a workshop moderated by Deborah Gillis, Vice President, Catalyst Canada, at our WiN-Canada Conference held in Ottawa, on Feb. 27, 2008. Catalyst is the leading nonprofit corporate membership research and advisory organization working globally with businesses and the professions to build inclusive environments and expand opportunities for women and business.

Myth #1 - Women comprise roughly half of the workforce so it’s only a matter of time before they rise to the top!

According to Statistics Canada 2006 data women represented 47.4% of the Canadian workforce, slightly higher than the numbers reported in 2004 at 46.9%. In 1976 women made up 37% of the workforce.

The Catalyst pyramid shows that while women make up approximately 50% of the Canadian workforce, their representation declines as you look up the corporate ladder. When we look at Fortune 500 top companies, only 15.1% of corporate officers, 12% of Board Directors, 5.4% of the top earners and 4.2% of heads of organizations, are women.

You can see as more women have entered the workplace over the past thirty years, the number of women making it to top positions has not increased to be representative of their 50% stake in the workforce.

Information taken from Catalyst’s Canadian Census of Corporate Officers and Top Earners released last year states: “While it is encouraging that the number of companies with one or more corporate officers has increased since our 2004 Census, five generations will enter the workforce before women represent one-quarter of corporate officers in Canada.” This was based on the rate of change persisting (the Census found a small fraction of a percent increase over two years). 

I repeat “five generations to achieve one-quarter of the corporate officers in Canada.” Personally I find this statistic disheartening. I have spent a great deal of effort in my workplace life pointing out actions that I found to be discriminatory against women and hoping that by the time my daughter hits the workforce she would not have to face many of the same issues. At this rate my great-great-great granddaughter may still be fighting for equality with her male colleagues. Educating ourselves about the myths and putting personal strategies in place in our career planning will hopefully speed up the rate of women's advancement.

Myth #1 is obviously not the reason why women are not successful in reaching the top of their organizations. Our next blog post will look at the 2nd Myth - Men want the top jobs more than women do, women are “opting out.”