Can Women expect Better Job Prospects and Career Advancement in Canada?

Job prospects can be hard to come by when you are immigrating to another country. It can be even more difficult if you are female and have ambitions of rising to the top of your industry. There are many factors that can stop a woman progressing to top or “breaking the glass ceiling” as it is often called, and a new study carried out by employment agency Ranstad Canada makes clear some of the issues.

There was a perception that the Canadian business environment is more progressive than in other countries, thus allowing women to break down the barriers when it comes to career progression, but a new survey is extremely revealing and seems to tell a different slightly different story.

The survey was conducted by Ipsos-Reid; more than 500 Canadian business women were interviewed and they had some interesting things to say about the chances of being promoted in Canada.

Appearance

90% of the women surveyed said that they believed a woman’s appearance would directly affect a woman’s chance of promotion. The survey also revealed that 37% felt the appearance of men wasn’t quite so important to being promoted. And when women talked about appearance, they didn’t just mean the way a woman presents themselves, they also felt that being physically attractive would enhance a female’s prospects of being rewarded a promotion.

Do Women make Better leaders?

According to the survey, those interviewed felt that women do indeed make better leaders than their male counterparts. They believe that women are more flexible in their approach and are more empathetic. However, women also had to work much harder to get where they are and had to work longer hours.

61% of women also admitted to finding it hard to balance out work life and family life.

“There is a great divide and divergence of opinion between women under 35 and women over 55 as regards what they as women can expect from the work place. There need be no doubt that women are good and inspiring leaders and it is our goal to provide a platform for and encourage all the executives, employees and all others to have an open discussion about the kind of workplace prejudices, obstacles, etc. that create hindrances to women as employees in the workplace.” 

The Future for Female Employees in Canada

Despite the challenges of climbing the career ladder in Canada, the majority of women still believed that the chances of career progression for woman in Canada remained good; 52% expected to see an increase in management roles.

Summary

So it seems that whether you have always lived in Canada or plan to immigrate to Canada, the possibility of career progression is there for women, but they just have to work much harder.