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Women in computing in Canada


Canada shares many of the concerns particularly prevalent in the developed and developing world about the current and future roles of women in computing, especially as these occupations increase in importance. As in much of the world where computing and information technology is a large industry, women have historically faced underrepresentation in education and industry. As a result, some Canadian women pursuing careers in these fields have had a lack of role models and faced sexism. There are many institutions and initiatives in Canada, however, which seek to increase representation for women in computing fields, as well as the fields of natural science and engineering in general.

As is typical in North America, the enrollment for women in computing disciplines at the post-secondary level is significantly lower than for males. According to Statistics Canada, in 2009, there were 33,219 students nationwide enrolled in “Mathematics, computer and information sciences”, with only 9,075 of them being women (27%). This is significantly lower than 3 years earlier (2005/2006), when the percentage of women was 37%. The fact that, in general, the enrollment of women in computer science and related disciplines is actually declining is mirrored in the US.

Another summary published by Statistics Canada shows that this trend is not recent; between 1992 and 2007, the number of annual female university graduates in computer science has remained roughly constant (with a slight increase between 2000 and 2004), whereas the number of male graduates has increased approximately 50% (with the 2004 value almost double that of the 1992 value). Relatively speaking, there were about twice as many male graduates as female in 1992, and three times as many in 2007.

A study looking at enrollment based on program and gender was done at the University of Waterloo in 2010, and the results were especially egregious (even compared to the nationwide statistics from the previous year). At Waterloo, the percentage of the undergraduate population in computer science that were women was only 11.5%, with a slight increase at the Master’s (18.4%) and PhD (17.1%) levels. Waterloo, being one of the only universities in Canada to have a higher percentage of male students than female, is an extreme example, but the trend is constant across many computer science departments in the country.


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