Employment Facts
Self-Employed Women                                                        
September 2007 - Download Factsheet (PDF, 120KB)

The Rise of Self-Employment in Canada

• Self-employment has grown faster in the past 25 years than paid employment. [12] In 2005, approximately 2.5 million people, representing 15.5% of all Canadian workers were self-employed. [8]
  
  
• Self-employment among men and women in Canada has been rising since the mid-1970s. Rates of self-employment were highest in the late 1990s and declined slightly in 2001. [3, 10]
  
  
• Growth in self-employment has been predominately in the “own account”, category, growing 65% from 1997 to 1998 and accounting for close to 80% of all self-employed Canadians by 1998. [1]

Increasing Numbers of Self-Employed Women

• Approximately 1 in 10 Canadian women are self-employed. [10]
  
  
• Between 1981 to 2001, the numbers of self-employed women increased almost 300% (from 181,000 to 556,000), compared to a 60% increase in the number of self-employed men (610,000 to 973,000). [3,10]
  
  
• In 2003, women accounted for more than one-third of all self-employed workers (34%), up from 31% in 1990 and 26% in 1976. [10]
  
  
• Much of the growth in self-employment among women has been in traditional female dominated sectors such as child care and janitorial and cleaning work. [6]

Rates Rising Fastest for Women in Rural Areas

• By 2001, 14% of women in rural and small town areas, aged 20-64, were engaged in non-farm self-employment as compared to 11% of women in urban areas. [3]
  
  
• Women living in rural areas are more likely than women in small towns to be engaged in non-farm self-employment activity. Similarly, women living in rural areas near urban centres are also more likely to be self-employed than women in urban centres. [3]

Women Entrepreneurs' Contributions to the Economy

• Women own 45% of Canadian small and medium enterprises. [12]
  
  
• As of 2003, Canadian women entrepreneurs were contributing more than $18.109 billion to the Canadian economy each year. [12]

More Likely to be Home-Based & Own Account

• Women are much more likely than men to be working from their home, especially among those who are own account self-employed. [2]
  
  
• In 2000, approximately 60% of self-employed women were own account self-employed as compared to 50% of self-employed men. [2]

Much More likely to be Working Part-Time

• In 2000, approximately 7.5% of self-employed men were working part-time as compared to 23% of self-employed women. [2]
  
  
• The numbers of self-employed women working part-time is even more pronounced for own account self-employed women, with nearly half of this group working part-time, a statistic that has largely remained unchanged since the 1970s. [4]

Earn Significantly Less than Self-Employed Men

• The average earnings for women who are self-employed are lower than those for employed women.[8]
  
  
• Self-employed women employers earn more than own account self-employed women but all self-employed women earn less on average than self-employed men in both categories.[6] Only 17% of self-employed women make more than $30,000 a year, compared with 42% of men. [8]
  
  
• Self-employed women with unincorporated businesses are far less likely (28.8%) to earn over $20,000 per year as compared to men (49.2%), especially in rural areas and small towns where men are twice as likely as women to earn $20,000 or more. [3]

• In most provinces and territories, self-employed Canadians do not qualify for government benefits and insurance programs such as disability, maternity/parental leave, employment insurance and pension programs.
  
  
• Quebec has recently opted out of the federal Employment Insurance (EI) program for special EI benefits such as maternity, adoption and parental leave making it the only province or territory to offer a full benefits plan to self-employed women. [7]
  
  
• In Ontario, self-employed female doctors receive government funded maternity benefits through the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care. In Manitoba, British Columbia and Nova Scotia, similar arrangements have been made to provide doctors with maternity and parental leave benefits. [6]

Access to Training Limited

• Many own account self-employed women are unable to access training and further their education due to the often high costs of training and education combined with a loss of income while away from their business. [2,5]

Economically Insecure

• Many own account self-employed women work part-time, have low earnings, have little or no access to training and are ineligible for government benefits and insurance programs which makes them especially financially vulnerable to earnings interruptions due to family or personal illness, or following childbirth/adoption. [4,6]
  
  
• The majority of self-employed women do not have private insurance plans. This is especially true for own account and low-income earning self-employed women. This is largely due to the high costs associated with private insurance. [6]
  
  
• Women are more likely than men to use personal finances to fund their business. [6]
  
  
• Women are also more likely than men to face additional barriers to running a business related to family care giving responsibilities such as accessing affordable quality child care, caring for child. [6]
  
  
• In 2004, 68% of self-employed women ran an unincorporated business as compared to 56% of self-employed men, leaving more than 20% of self-employed women’s businesses and personal assets vulnerable to bankruptcy. [10]
  
  
• Financial vulnerability may be even more pronounced for members of marginalized communities, especially among immigrant women whom tend to work in sectors of self-employment with lower earnings relative to non-immigrants. [6]

Factors Contributing to the Rise in Self-Employment among Women

• Although there is much debate around the specific factors contributing to higher rates of self-employment in Canada, research indicates that among these factors are public and private sector restructuring in the 1990s and a delayed response to the entry of large numbers of women into the workforce since the 1970s. [2,4,5]
  
  
• When self-employed Canadian women were asked the main reasons for their choice to become self-employed, 85% stated that a desire for more challenging work was the most important factor in their decision. [5]

Self-Employment Terms

• “own account” workers - self-employed workers who work strictly on their own.

• “employers” - self-employed workers who have employees working for them.