Every year, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives releases a snapshot of the gaps in men and women’s access to economic security, personal security, education, health, and positions of leadership in Canada’s largest 26 metropolitan areas. The report identifies areas of strength and weakness when it comes to things like the wage gap, the data gap, domestic violence, and child care.
This year’s list shows no clear winner with the difference between first place Kingston and last place Barrie being separated by only 7.1 percentage points, suggesting that all of Canada’s cities need to be doing more to close their gender gaps.
Montreal women take home 78.5% of what men take home.
The Rankings
1. Kingston, ON
2. St. John’s, NL
3. Victoria, BC
4. Hamilton, ON
5. Vancouver, BC
6. Ottawa, ON
7. Sherbrooke, QC
8. Toronto, ON
9. Greater Sudbury, ON
10. Gatineau, QC
11. St. Catharines-Niagara, ON
12. Saskatoon, SK
13. Abbotsford-Mission, BC
14. Oshawa, ON
15. Winnipeg, MB
16. Kelowna, BC
17. Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, ON
18. London, ON
19. Quebec, QC
20. Windsor, ON
21. Calgary, AB
22. Halifax, NS
23. Regina, SK
24. Montreal, QC
25. Edmonton, AB
26. Barrie, ON
How Montreal Performed
Montreal placed 10th on Economic Security, 23rd Education, 25th Health, 24th Leadership, and 20th on Security, resulting in a 24th position ranking. Below is a detailed summary of how Montreal fared for each category.
Economic Participation and Security
Employment rates have held steady in Montreal over the past five years, with an uptick between 2016 and 2017 for both men and women. Women aged 15 to 64 reported above-average employment levels in 2016 (72.0% vs. 70.6%), putting Montreal in 13th place among big cities on this measure. The gender employment gap, however, widened over this time as employment gains favoured men. On this score, Montreal ranked 14th with an employment gap of 93.4%, down one position from its ranking in 2012.
Three-quarters of female workers (75.1%) are employed full time, placing Montreal in the middle of the pack. The gender gap in full-time work is narrower than the national average (86.8% vs. 84.5%) due to men’s below-average employment rates.
Women’s average employment income was slightly higher than the national average in 2016 (up 8.6% over 2012), reaching $29,300. At $37,340, men’s average earnings were below the national average, again resulting in a smaller-than-average gender gap, this time in wages, with women taking home 78.5% of what men take home.
Montreal has struggled with high levels of poverty for many years. In recent years, Montreal’s poverty rate has started to fall, from a post-recessionary high 19.4% in 2011 to 17.8% in 2016. Key groups continue to struggle, notably among the working poor, recent immigrants and, increasingly, seniors. While Montreal has avoided the rocketing rates of inequality evident in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary, it continues to grapple with deep pockets of poverty.
Of the 26 large cities in this study, Montreal ranks 22nd with respect to women’s poverty rate, which sits at 18.5%. While the level of women’s poverty is higher in Montreal than in other Quebec cities, the gender poverty gap is smaller (92.4%). There was effectively no change in this gap between 2012 and 2016.
Educational Attainment
The majority of women living in Montreal hold post-secondary degrees. Of women aged 25 to 64, 38.5% are university graduates (almost five percent-age points above the Canadian average) and 36.5% are college, CEGEP or trade school graduates. Greater numbers of women attend both college and university compared to their male counterparts.
Montreal ranks 13th and 25th among large cities in terms of the gender gap in education attainment among college and university graduates, respectively, both in favour of women.
Men outnumber women in the trades, although as in other Quebec cities the gap is narrower than elsewhere in Canada. One in 10 Montreal women hold STEM degrees (10.3%), slightly below the Canadian average of 10.6%.
Leadership and Political Empowerment
Women currently make up just over one-third (37%) of elected officials (including mayors and city councillors), above the average for large cities (34%). The city itself has achieved gender parity on city council: women occupy 51% of elected positions including mayor, held by Valérie Laplante. In the larger Montreal area one-quarter of municipalities have a female mayor. Overall, Montreal ranks sixth on female representation in municipal leadership.
However, women do less well outside of politics, holding 30.6% of all management-level jobs in 2017, one of the lowest levels among large cities and down from 34.6% in 2013. The proportion of female workers working in management occupations is below the national average (6.2% vs. 6.8%).
Women are represented among business owners, but men still dominate. Overall, women make up about one-third of all self-employed (35.2%) in Montreal, and of this group comparatively few engage paid help. Women’s 30Canadian Centre for Policy Alternativesshare of the self-employed with paid help (20.8%) is the second lowest among large cities, behind London, and the proportion of female business owners in Montreal with paid help is the lowest (at 15.8%). Montreal ranks 25th with respect to this measure of entrepreneurship.
Health
Montreal ranks in the bottom quarter of large cities in the health domain. Like other Quebec cities, low rates of coverage for cervical cancer testing (60.8%) and a comparatively wide gap in the proportion of women reporting very good or excellent health compared to men have resulted in low scores. In particular, there was a 10 percentage point gap between women and men rating their health as very good or excellent (56.7% vs. 66.3%) in 2016. Montreal is one of 14 cities where a greater share of men reported excellent health compared to women, and one of four cities where the difference is sizeable.
Men are also less likely than women to report high stress in their daily lives (21.3% vs. 26.7%). Like in Sherbrooke, there has been a decrease in the proportion of men reporting high stress between 2011 and 2016. Rates among women were effectively unchanged over this period.
Life expectancy in Montreal is slightly above the Canadian average and, as is typically the case, women live slightly longer lives than men (84.9 years on average compared to 80.8 years). Life expectancy for women and men has increased since 2011
Personal Security
The rate of intimate partner violence reported to the police in Montreal is higher than the average for big cities, but lower for sexual assault. Montreal, however, has one of the highest levels of criminal harassment targeting women, putting the city in 23rd place on this measure. Overall, Montreal placed 20th as a safe place for women to live in Canada.
In 2017, almost 10,500 people were victims of intimate partner violence (including violence committed by a spouse, common-law partner or dat-ing partner), with women making up the vast majority of victims (75.7%). Montreal ranked 19th among the 26 large cities in this study with respect to its rate of intimate partner violence targeting women (at 472.86 per 100,000 population).
Women made up a larger share of the victims of sexual assault (84.4%). Montreal’s police-reported rate of sexual assault among women was 74.80 per 100,000 population, putting the city in fifth place in on this measure. The unfounded rate for police-reported sexual assaults in Montreal was 18% over the 2010–14 period compared to 19% nationally. The Montreal police force conducted a review of past cases. No cases were reopened and no files were identified as incorrectly classified.