Report measures best Canadian cities for women

A new study ranks the best places to live in Canada for women, with the country's largest city coming in at number six.

Topping the list as the best place among the 20 cities ranked is Quebec City, followed by Saskatoon.

Toronto ranks highest in Ontario, with the province's next city, Hamilton, coming in at 10th.

Toronto came in just below Montreal (4) and well ahead of Vancouver (13) among big cities.

Alberta faired the worst, with Calgary and Edmonton coming in at 17th and 20th place respectively.

The study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives draws data from Statistics Canada, the United Nations’ gender inequality index and others. It focuses on the gap between men and women. It measures equality in areas of employment, safety, access to health care, among others indexes. A score of 1.0 represents equality, while 0.0 is inequality. Read the full study here.

Here's how Toronto fared in key areas.

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The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives study also says women fare particularly badly in political leadership representation. According to the Federation of Canadian municipalities, women represent 16 per cent of mayors and 26 per cent of councillors in Canada, for an average of 24 per cent.

With women making up a little more than one-third of council — 15 female councillors out of 44 on Toronto City Council — the city fares well in leadership compared to the rest of the country.

The United Nations says a 30 per cent representation level is the minimum percentage of women needed for a government to reflect women´s concerns.

Here are the rest of the rankings, according to the report:

1. Quebec City 2. Saskatoon 3. St. John’s 4. Montreal 5. Victoria 6. Toronto 7. Ottawa-Gatineau 8. Sherbrooke 9. Halifax 10. Hamilton 11. Regina 12. Winnipeg 13. Vancouver 14. St. Catharines 15. London 16. Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo 17. Calgary 18. Windsor 19. Oshawa 20. Edmonton