More Canadian women are actively pursuing their career goals, but face persisting progression challenges

• 83% of Canadian women surveyed are confident in their ability to fulfill their career aspirations and 71% are actively seeking career advancement opportunities
• 38%  feel nervous about the impact that starting a family might have on their career
• 35% believe that an employee's diversity can be a barrier to career progression
• 36% are worried that taking advantage of work-life balance and flexibility programs would be perceived as being less committed to their careers

TORONTO, March 8, 2018 /CNW/ - To mark International Women's Day (IWD), PwC Canada published the results of a global survey that included insights from 237 Canadian professional women (aged 28-40) around their career development experiences and aspirations.

The report – Time to talk: what has to change for women at work – reveals that women are confident, ambitious and ready for what's next, but many want more open communication with their employers to talk about career development, expectations, promotion opportunities and advancement challenges. While 83% of Canadian women are confident in their ability to fulfill their career aspirations, 35% believe gender, ethnicity, age or sexual preference can be a barrier to career progression in their organisation. A significant number of women are also concerned about the negative impact that starting a family or using work-life balance and flexibility programs could have on their careers.

Bill McFarland, CEO and Chief Inclusion Officer of PwC Canada, says:

"Having more top female talent represented at all levels of business is key to the success of our economy. As leaders, we have an important role to play in accelerating progress on gender equity and the advancement of women by: educating ourselves and our teams on unconscious biases; engaging in thoughtful dialogue around the challenges and opportunities for greater inclusion; and coaching and sponsoring top female talent. Ultimately, it's our diversity of thought, perspectives and backgrounds that will help us become a more  progressive, successful and innovative business community and society."

Seventy-one percent of the Canadian women surveyed were actively seeking career advancement opportunities.  At PwC Canada, we created the Women in Leadership (WiL) Program to help them do just that. Our WiL program supports the advancement of top female talent within the firm and our  business commitment to achieve 50/50 gender parity among new partner admits by 2020. WiL is an intensive six-month program that provides women with personal and professional development focused on four areas: insights, tools, networks, and experience.  More than 200 women have graduated from the program, including 61 graduates in 2017. Five graduates of the program were promoted to partnership last year.  The WiL program was selected as the Best Social Collaboration & Knowledge Sharing category of the Leadership Excellence and Development Awards (LEAD) for 2018.

"The WiL program has become an important forum for thoughtful dialogue around career advancement challenges and opportunities for women at PwC. And we have a number of male and female leaders who are also engaged throughout the program to listen and bring that feedback to their leadership tables, and provide mentorship and sponsorship for women in the program," adds McFarland.

Three actions to #PressforProgress to accelerate the advancement of women in the workplace are:

1.	Leadership accountability and sponsorship: Empower and hold leadership teams, coaches and team leads accountable to identifying, mentoring and sponsoring top female talent, and promoting gender equity and inclusion within their own teams.
2.	Understand our biases and adjust our actions: Work-life flexibility demands are important to everyone; it is not only a life-stage or gender issue. While many organizations are re-designing maternity/paternity leaves and re-entry programs many people don't partake because they believe it creates stereotypical biases and will hurt their careers. Leaders and coaches must recognise that everyone has flexibility needs and they should be encouraged to use these support programs to help them become stronger, more engaged professionals.
3.	Transparency and trust: Provide fair and transparent feedback around performance and development opportunities, and be aware of how your own biases might be influencing the conversation. Nearly half of Canadian women in our survey indicated they'd like to see more fairness and transparency around promotion criteria, in understanding the expectations to reach the next level, and in the opportunities available for them grow.

To access the full report, click here.

About PwC Canada
At PwC, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. More than 6,500 partners and staff in offices across the country are committed to delivering quality in assurance, tax, consulting and deals services. PwC Canada is a member of the PwC network of firms with more than 230,000 people in 157 countries. Find out more and tell us what matters to you by visiting us at www.pwc.com/ca.

© 2018 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an Ontario limited liability partnership. All rights reserved.

PwC refers to the Canadian member firm, and may sometimes refer to the PwC network. Each member firm is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details.

SOURCE PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers)

Pierre Campeau, Manager, Public Relations, Tel: [phone], e-mail: [email protected]

Related Links

http://www.pwc.com/ca