A study conducted by executive search firm Rosenzweig & Co. found that the number of women in top executives positions in Canada has fallen over the past year from 37 women in the highest-paying executive jobs in 2006 to just 31 in 2007.

Furthermore, of the 535 highest paid and most senior positions at those companies, only 5.8% are held by women (down from 6.9% in the prior year). One more disheartening statistic shows that only 26% of those companies have at least one woman in an executive officer’s position (e.g., CEO, CMO, COO, CIO, CFO, etc.), which is down 4% from 30% in the prior year.

However, all hope is not lost for Canadian businesswomen. In April 2007, Catalyst surveyed all of the FP 500 companies in Canada, and at the time, 15.1% of upper management positions were held by women (up from 14.4% in 2005). That means some of those women could be on the right path to move into corporate executive positions in the future. What remains to be seen is whether or not they’ll get the chance.

What do you think about the lack of women in the highest-level executive positions in large Canadian companies?