We also need to mention that there is a need for mentorship in the professional areas of engineering and those sorts of areas. Women are dropping out in large numbers. My niece, for example, did electrical engineering and never went any further. Another young woman did architecture and never went any further. It is an awful waste of education for that to happen--good brains are being wasted. Perhaps if something was provided to universities so they could call back to their professors--women tend to lack networks when they are in non-traditional professions, and networks could help with the mentorship issue.
Of course, the key is getting more women into both apprenticeship trades and non-traditional professions, but I think that is really important, and I have a feeling that we need more up-to-date research on the subject as to what is really happening in Canada. We did a women in university study in 1992 and my colleagues flatly told me that was out of date, and it is. We need more research. I'm not quite sure how to go about it, perhaps having mentors within the workplace itself and a woman-friendly atmosphere.
Another profession equal numbers of women are going into is law, but it's not a friendly place to be for a woman.