Navigating sticky floors and glass ceilings: Barriers and opportunities for women's employment in natural resources industries in Canada

Bipasha Baruah and Sandra Biskupski‐Mujanovic

Natural Resources Forum, 2021, vol. 45, issue 2, 183-205

Abstract: Women make up almost half the Canadian labour force and more than 50% of post‐secondary students. However, in natural resources (NR) industries (energy, mining, forestry), they represent less than 20% of the workforce, face persistent wage gaps, hold traditionally gendered roles (in sales, administrative and support services) instead of technical or managerial positions, and are persistently absent from leadership roles. Retention of women is also a big challenge in these industries: many tend to leave their jobs within the first five years of employment, and/or after one or more maternity leaves. Women are very poorly represented in leadership positions (as senior executives and board members) despite significant evidence that gender diversity in leadership is good for business. Findings from our study of the status of women in NR employment in Canada produced concrete policy recommendations for recruiting, retaining, and promoting women in energy, mining, and forestry. Although these are intended specifically for Canadian organisations, they may also be relevant for other countries where women are underrepresented in NR industries.

Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/1477-8947.12216

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:natres:v:45:y:2021:i:2:p:183-205

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Natural Resources Forum from Blackwell Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().