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Dramatic change over past decade, StatsCan reports
Ottawa (6 Sept. 2007) - A new Statistics Canada study says women now hold a majority of jobs in core federal government employment, a dramatic shift over the past decade.
In 1995, men represented 54.1% of all "core" public administration employees. By 2006, the situation had reversed with women representing 54.2% of core public administration employees, the agency reports.
The study covers workers employed by the Treasury Board, which excludes the military, RCMP, Crown corporations and the Canada Revenue Agency.
Lead author Katarzyna Naczk says one of the main reasons for the change is that jobs requiring a lower level of knowledge-based skills, such as maintenance, labour, technician and correctional service jobs experienced steep cuts during the period.
Many of these jobs, traditionally dominated by males, were outsourced during cost-cutting periods in the mid-1990s. At the same time, an increase in "knowledge-based" government jobs occurred for both men and women, with women recording gains in all of these job categories.
The results of the study mirror the number of women in the paid labour force and graduating from universities, the report says.
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More information:
Female Employment in the (Core) Federal Public Administration - pdf