While more Canadian women hold university degrees than men, they continue to earn less money.

Statistics Canada released figures Tuesday showing that between 1991 and 2001, the proportion women aged 25 to 29 holding a university degree rose by more than half from 21 per cent to 34 per cent.

During the same period, the number of young men holding a degree increased at a considerably slower pace, to 21 per cent from 16 per cent.

Despite the fact that more women have a university education, which generally leads to higher earnings, the wage gap between genders shrank by just two per cent over the 10 years.

(CBC)

In 1991, women earned 20 per cent less than men; by 2001, the gap had narrowed only slightly, to 18 per cent. Statistics Canada attributes the decline to the growing number of female degree-holders.

The study found that one reason for the disparity was a rising wage gap between university graduates in different disciplines throughout the 1990s. While real wages increased in male-dominated areas such as engineering, mathematics and computer sciences, they fell in female-dominated sectors such as health and education.

Throughout the 1980s, the earnings gap between young women and men declined more rapidly from 26 per cent in 1981 to 20 per cent in 1991. The rise in female degree holders played a small role in this decline, according to Statistics Canada.