Which Women Have Arrived?

I recently attended the Regional Diversity Roundtable’s event “It’s 2015: Which Women have Arrived?”

It was an interesting and thought-provoking evening. One of the speakers was Sandeep Tatla – Chief Diversity Officer from the Ontario College of Trades. Here were a few statistics Sandeep shared:

• Women are still overrepresented in traditional female occupations (teaching, nursing, health) – many of these are underpaid professions.
• Women still make 12-31.5% less than their male counterparts.
• Despite being about half the population, and being about 53% of university graduates (since the 1980s), women continue to be under-represented in higher management positions (37.4% of lower managers, 31.6% of senior managers) and in STEM (22.3%) and trades (12%).
• In all sectors, less than 50% of leadership positions are filled by women.

None of these statistics are surprising, nor is the fact that women are under-represented in leadership positions across sectors. But what did surprise me is the extent to which some women are more under-represented than others – specifically  women who are also visible minority women, women with disabilities, Aboriginal women, and women who identify as LGBTQ.

I feel like I’m reliving the Oscars debate…

Leadership clearly still has a gender.
But it also has a white, able bodied, heterosexual, (and probably slim) body.

See more.

Copyright 2016 Annemarie Shrouder
Speaker, Author and Facilitator on issues of Diversity & Inclusion
www.annemarieshrouder.com
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