Canada's labour market has made meaningful progress toward equity, but finding the right opportunity as a woman, or finding qualified women candidates as an employer, still requires a platform built for the Canadian context. WomenAtWork.ca was created to close that gap: a dedicated Canadian job board where women in Canada seeking employment connect directly with employers committed to equitable, inclusive hiring. Whether you are returning to the workforce after a break, entering a trade or STEM field, or an HR manager trying to meet Employment Equity Act obligations, WomenAtWork.ca is designed for you.
Quick Takeaways
- WomenAtWork.ca is Canada's dedicated employment platform for women
- Employers post roles aligned with federally regulated and equity-forward hiring practices
- Job seekers browse openings in trades, STEM, office roles, and return-to-work programs
- The platform supports employer compliance with Canada's Employment Equity Act
- Provincial search filters help job seekers narrow opportunities by region
- Separate employer and job seeker accounts provide tools suited to each audience
What WomenAtWork.ca Is
WomenAtWork.ca is a Canadian job board built with a single focus: connecting women across the country with employers who take equitable hiring seriously. The platform is not a general-purpose job aggregator. It exists specifically to serve women in Canada seeking employment and the employers committed to recruiting them, from federally regulated industries to small businesses.
A Dedicated Space, Not a Filter on a Generic Board
Most large job boards treat equity as an afterthought, offering a simple checkbox to filter results by employers who self-describe as equity-friendly. WomenAtWork.ca approaches this differently. The platform is built from the ground up around the needs of Canadian women job seekers and the compliance requirements of employers who must meet standards under federal and provincial employment equity frameworks. The result is a more direct connection between candidates and employers who are genuinely seeking them.
Who Uses WomenAtWork.ca
Two distinct audiences use the platform regularly.
Job seekers are women across Canada at every career stage: recent graduates, experienced professionals re-entering the workforce, and tradeswomen seeking unionized placements in sectors that are actively recruiting.
Employers are HR managers and hiring teams at federally regulated organizations, public sector bodies, and private employers who recruit under equity programs or who want access to a qualified, engaged pool of women candidates.
For Job Seekers: What WomenAtWork.ca Offers You
If you are a woman in Canada looking for work, WomenAtWork.ca gives you access to employers who have specifically listed positions on a women-focused platform. That signals something meaningful: these employers are not just tolerating applications from women. They are actively seeking them.
You can browse open roles and create a job seeker profile at WomenAtWork.ca for job seekers, which lets employers find you even when you are not actively applying.
Types of Roles Available
The platform covers a wide range of employment categories:
- Office and administrative roles: positions in finance, operations, communications, and HR across industries
- STEM positions: engineering, IT, data science, and research roles at employers actively running women-in-STEM initiatives
- Trades and skilled labour: electrician apprenticeships, millwright positions, plumbing roles, and other trades where employers are recruiting women to meet equity targets
- Return-to-work roles: positions designed for women re-entering the workforce after a career break, often with flexible schedules, mentorship support, or bridging programs
How to Make the Most of Your Profile
A strong profile on WomenAtWork.ca does more than list your work history. It positions you for the specific types of employers listed on the platform. Key profile elements include a clear headline that reflects your target role, a skills section that highlights any equity-relevant certifications or training, and a statement of availability that addresses part-time, contract, or return-to-work options if relevant to your situation.
Provincial and Territorial Coverage
WomenAtWork.ca serves job seekers across all provinces and territories. Whether you are based in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, or a smaller province like Prince Edward Island or New Brunswick, the platform indexes roles at employers operating in your region. The search interface lets you filter by province so you are not sifting through postings irrelevant to your location.
For Employers: What WomenAtWork.ca Offers You
If you are an HR manager or talent acquisition lead, WomenAtWork.ca gives you something that general job boards cannot: a self-selected audience of women who are actively seeking Canadian employment and who have chosen a platform specifically oriented toward equity-conscious employers.
Employers can review posting options and get started at WomenAtWork.ca for employers.
Compliance and Employment Equity Act Obligations
Canada's Employment Equity Act applies to federally regulated employers, including organizations in banking, telecommunications, transportation, broadcasting, and federal Crown corporations. The Act requires that these employers take proactive steps to achieve equitable representation for four designated groups, one of which is women. Posting on WomenAtWork.ca is one concrete, documented step toward demonstrating that recruitment efforts are reaching women candidates.
For employers subject to compliance audits by the Canadian Human Rights Commission, the ability to show that job postings appeared on women-focused channels is meaningful evidence of good-faith recruitment effort.
Reaching Women in Trades and STEM
Federally regulated employers in construction, utilities, and extractive industries have specific obligations to recruit women into non-traditional roles. WomenAtWork.ca's audience includes women who are already credentialed in trades, such as journeypersons, apprentices, and candidates enrolled in provincially recognized programs, as well as women in STEM fields who are looking for employers with active equity commitments. For employers running Women in Trades or Women in Technology initiatives, posting on a platform where that audience is already engaged reduces sourcing time and improves the quality of the candidate pool.
Return-to-Work Program Listings
Many employers have developed structured return-to-work programs for women who have taken time away from paid employment, typically for caregiving. WomenAtWork.ca allows employers to tag these listings specifically so they surface for candidates looking for re-entry roles. This benefits both sides: the employer reaches a motivated, often highly experienced pool of candidates, and the candidate finds opportunities structured around her re-entry needs.
The Employment Equity Act Framework
The Employment Equity Act shapes how federally regulated employers in Canada approach hiring. Understanding it matters whether you are a job seeker or an employer.
What the Act Requires
Federally regulated employers with 100 or more employees must prepare and file annual employment equity reports with Employment and Social Development Canada. These reports detail the representation of the four designated groups across occupational categories within the organization. When representation falls below workforce availability, employers are expected to set goals and take measures to close the gap.
What This Means for Job Seekers
For women job seekers, the Employment Equity Act means that federally regulated employers are legally motivated to hire and advance women, not just in entry-level roles, but into management and professional categories where representation gaps have historically been larger. When a job posting from a federally regulated employer appears on WomenAtWork.ca, there is often a compliance-backed reason the employer is reaching out through equity-focused channels.
What This Means for Employers
For HR teams, the Act's reporting requirements create a documentation trail. Using platforms like WomenAtWork.ca adds to the record of proactive recruitment. It also tends to produce measurable results: a platform pre-filtered to women candidates generates applications from that group at a substantially higher rate than a general board where women may self-select out before applying.
Trades, STEM, and Return-to-Work: Three Growth Pipelines
Three role categories represent the most active growth areas for women's employment in Canada. WomenAtWork.ca is structured to serve all three.
Trades
The skilled trades in Canada face a well-documented labour shortage, and employers across the country are actively recruiting women to fill that gap. Provincial apprenticeship programs, including those administered by Ontario's Skilled Trades Ontario, BC's SkilledTradesBC, and equivalent bodies in other provinces, have expanded outreach to women. WomenAtWork.ca lists roles at employers who have already demonstrated willingness to hire women tradespeople, which cuts through the noise for candidates who might otherwise spend time applying to employers not genuinely open to non-traditional hires.
STEM
Women in STEM have access to a range of federal programs designed to support entry and advancement in science, technology, engineering, and math fields. Employers in these sectors, particularly those with federal contracts or federally regulated status, face growing pressure to close representation gaps at the professional and management levels. WomenAtWork.ca provides a sourcing channel specifically for this need, connecting women with STEM credentials to employers who have made that commitment visible by posting on a women-focused platform.
Return to Work
Statistics Canada data consistently shows that women carry a disproportionate share of unpaid caregiving work, which interrupts careers more frequently and for longer periods than for men. Return-to-work programs offered by Canadian employers have grown in number over the past decade. WomenAtWork.ca allows these roles to be found by the women most likely to want them, creating a more efficient match between structured re-entry opportunities and experienced candidates who are ready to return.
Provincial Signposts: Where to Search by Region
Canada's employment equity landscape is not uniform across provinces. While the federal Employment Equity Act applies to federally regulated employers nationwide, provinces have their own human rights codes and equity initiatives that shape the hiring environment.
Ontario
Ontario's Pay Transparency Act and the requirements under the Ontario Human Rights Code push employers to examine gaps in pay and representation. Women job seekers in Ontario will find a significant concentration of federally regulated employers in the financial services and telecommunications sectors, both of which are active recruiters on equity-focused platforms.
British Columbia
BC's construction and resource sectors are among the most active in the country in recruiting women into trades. SkilledTradesBC's Women in Trades programs have a network of employer partners who recruit through targeted channels. Women in technology will also find a strong employer base in the Greater Vancouver area, where several major federally regulated employers operate.
Quebec
Quebec operates its own employment equity regime alongside federal requirements, with legislation requiring provincial public sector employers to achieve equity across designated groups. Women job seekers in Quebec may encounter bilingual postings; WomenAtWork.ca includes bilingual listings where employers have provided them.
Atlantic Canada and the Territories
Atlantic provinces and the northern territories have smaller labour markets but active programs supporting women in non-traditional roles, particularly in fisheries, mining, and resource industries. WomenAtWork.ca's search filters allow users to surface roles in these regions specifically, making it easier to find opportunities without sorting through listings from across the country.
FAQ
What is WomenAtWork.ca?
WomenAtWork.ca is a Canadian job board built to connect women seeking employment in Canada with employers who are actively committed to equitable, inclusive hiring. It serves job seekers at all career stages and in all sectors, as well as employers including federally regulated organizations, public sector bodies, and private companies running equity-focused recruitment programs.
Who can post jobs on WomenAtWork.ca?
Any Canadian employer can post roles on WomenAtWork.ca. The platform is particularly well suited to federally regulated employers, organizations running formal equity programs, employers with Women in Trades or Women in STEM initiatives, and companies offering structured return-to-work roles. Employers can review pricing and posting options at WomenAtWork.ca for employers.
Is WomenAtWork.ca only for professional or office roles?
No. The platform covers a broad range of employment categories including skilled trades, STEM, administrative, management, healthcare, and return-to-work positions. Women tradespeople and those in non-traditional occupations are an explicit part of the platform's audience.
How does WomenAtWork.ca differ from general job boards?
General job boards aggregate all job postings and offer optional equity filters. WomenAtWork.ca is built specifically for women job seekers and equity-focused employers. This means the candidate pool is self-selected and the employer list consists of organizations that have made a deliberate choice to recruit through a women-focused channel, which tends to produce better-matched applications on both sides.
Do I need to pay to use WomenAtWork.ca as a job seeker?
Job seeker accounts on WomenAtWork.ca allow women to browse openings and create a profile. For full details on account options and what each includes, visit WomenAtWork.ca for job seekers.
How does the Employment Equity Act relate to WomenAtWork.ca?
Canada's Employment Equity Act requires federally regulated employers to take proactive steps to achieve equitable representation of women in their workforce. Posting roles on WomenAtWork.ca is a documented, measurable step toward meeting those recruitment obligations and can form part of an employer's compliance record when reporting to Employment and Social Development Canada.
Whether you are hiring or job hunting, WomenAtWork.ca serves both sides of the market. Employers can review pricing and post a role at https://womenatwork.ca/employers. Job seekers can browse openings and create a profile at https://womenatwork.ca/job-seekers.