Using data from the 2016 Census of Population and the updated Remoteness Index Classification, this paper focuses on the educational attainment, type of postsecondary qualification (e.g. apprenticeship or trades, college or CEGEP [College d'enseignement general et professionnel, publicly funded general and vocational colleges exclusive to Quebec's education system], or university degree at the bachelor level or higher), and the fields of study of women by the relative remoteness of their communities. Women in Canada are highly educated and, in every remoteness area category, they were more likely to hold a postsecondary qualification than having no diploma or having a high school qualification as their highest level of education. However, the results showed that an educational gap still exists among women living in more accessible areas and those in more remote areas; the more remote a community was, the lower women's high school and postsecondary completion rates were.
Among postsecondary graduates, there was a gap in the type of postsecondary credentials depending on the remoteness. Women living in easily accessible areas who had a postsecondary qualification were more likely to have a bachelor's degree or above - which is associated with higher earnings - while women living in more remote areas were more likely to hold a college or CEGEP certificate or diploma than any other types of postsecondary qualification. Women's educational attainment and the type of postsecondary qualification also varied by characteristics. Indigenous women had the lowest educational attainment of all groups studied in all remoteness areas - but especially those living in very remote areas. In contrast, women designated as visible minorities were the most likely of all groups studied to hold a bachelor's degree or above, and that, whatever the remoteness areas category. Finally, fields of study varied only very slightly by remoteness area categories. The two most common fields of study, which, taken together, accounted for about 44 per cent of all fields of study, were business and administration and health care, whatever the remoteness category.
Edited excerpts from publication.
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