Women in Canada currently control about $2.2 trillion of Canadian assets, a rising amount of wealth and increasing influence on the overall economy, says a new report released on Monday by CIBC Capital Markets.

“More needs to be done in order to fully utilize women’s economic might, but the direction is clear,” said the report, The Changing Landscape of Women’s Wealth, by CIBC Capital Markets economists Benjamin Tal and Katherine Judge. “Women will become an even larger and more influential force in the Canadian economy.”

Since the 2008 recession, more women aged 25-plus are working and actively participating in the economy, said the report, adding that women in this demographic have accounted for 52 per cent of job growth in full-time positions since 2008 and have increasingly landed jobs in higher-paying fields, with almost one-third of women in those roles now.

The report also said that women over the age of 55 have seen labour market participation rates rise by almost twice the amount of men during this cycle.

“In families in which there is an employed woman in the core-working age demographic, women’s earnings now account for a record-high 47 per cent of family income, almost double the share seen in the 1970s,” said the CIBC.

“Today 41 per cent of women (single, divorced, widows, and women responsible for investment decisions) control no less than $2.2 trillion of financial assets. That number is expected to rise quickly, as the cohort of women with stronger labour incomes and retirees grows. We estimate that by 2028, women will control just under $3.8 trillion or more than one-third of total financial assets and more than double that number if we include real estate assets.”

– Mario Toneguzzi

The views, opinions and positions expressed by columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of our publication.