Fewer than 5 per cent of the top-paid executive officers in Canada's largest publicly-traded companies are women, according to leading executive search firm Rosenzweig & Company.

"We've heard a lot of talk over the past decade or so about women breaking through the glass ceiling," says Jay Rosenzweig, Managing Partner of Rosenzweig & Company. "But clearly these numbers speak volumes as to how much action - or inaction - has occurred in filling the highest executive positions with women. There remains great hesitancy to give women the keys to the Top 5 executive officer jobs."

Women represent more than half the Canadian population and 46.6 per cent of the workforce.