There were four men for every woman who held doctorates in either science or engineering in Canada in 2001 – and women with PhDs in those disciplines were earning considerably less than their male counterparts.
Of the 57,095 people who held a doctorate in either science or engineering in 2001, the Statistics Canada study found that 45,670, nearly 80 per cent, were men, even though women account for 47 per cent of employed Canadians, and 57 per cent of university graduates in general.
The study found that for every dollar earned by a male doctorate holder in science and engineering fields, female doctorate holders earned 77 cents, compared with 71 cents in the general labour force.
On average, a scientist or engineer with a PhD employed on a full-time basis earned $70,000, nearly twice the average of $36,000 for Canada's full-time workers in 2000.
The private sector paid significantly more than the public sector in 2000 for services offered by young Canadian scientists and engineers with PhDs.
However, the gap between public sector and private sector earnings narrowed as PhD holders in science and engineering aged. Earnings in the public sector even surpassed, on average, those of the private sector for older workers.
The study looked at people who held a doctorate in agricultural, biological or veterinary sciences, engineering or applied sciences, health sciences, or mathematics, computer or physical sciences.
In 2001, employed PhD holders were older than the average Canadian worker. The average age of the 100,000 employed PhD holders reached 48, and it was 46 for the 57,095 employed science and engineering PhD holders.
In contrast, the average age for the 15 million employed Canadian workers did not exceed 39.
