Racialization and gender of lawyers in Ontario

The legal profession in Ontario is changing dramatically. The number of lawyers who are women, Aboriginal and members of a visible minority continues to grow, transforming the face of a profession that until the early 1970s was primarily White and male. Drawing on Canadian Censuses, this report provides a statistical portrait of a profession in the midst of fundamental transition. The research is based primarily on the 2006 "long form" Census questionnaire, completed by one-fifth of all households. Information about 6,400 lawyers is used to describe the total of about 32,000 Ontario lawyers.