Equality in the boardroom? Not any time soon, says Canadian Chamber of Commerce
CBC
Women are a minority in Canadian boardrooms and the "glacial" pace of progress means it could take decades to reach gender parity, according to a report released this week by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
"Our daughters, our granddaughters, would not see a world where they are ultimately equitable … and that's just not reasonable when you think about it in 2024," said senior research director Marwa Abdou, lead author of the report.
Abdou said women have made gains in overall employment, making up 48 per cent of the workforce. But many never reach the most senior ranks — the most recent data shows just 21 per cent of board directors were women in 2020, up just slightly from 18 per cent in 2016.
"The importance of boards here is that there are trickle down effects of these low representation numbers on how management looks in the rest of the company."
The report analyzed Statistics Canada data on publicly-traded corporations.
The chamber pointed to outdated corporate culture as well as poor recruitment and retention practices as reasons for why women often struggle to move beyond middle management to top jobs like board director.
Canada's share of female managers is 35.6 per cent, behind almost half of all Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Countries that have better representation include Mexico (38.9 per cent), the U.S. (41 per cent) and Latvia (45.9 per cent).
"It's pulling women across the pipeline, and recognizing that when they do leave for maternity leave, or for other purposes,… that doesn't negate the skills that they bring forward, their ability to progress if they're actually invested in properly," said Abdou.
She said if companies want to improve their balance in the boardroom, they should take steps from tracking hiring and promotions to offering opportunities for upskilling and flexible work.
"Making sure that we're holding corporations and other stakeholders accountable … is going to be really quite a game changer."
Despite the findings, Deborah Rosati said she's optimistic. She founded Women Get on Board, an organization that offers networking and mentoring programs.
"We're about helping women be more confident and have more courage to lead and serve on corporate boards," she said, noting that bringing more women into the fold is good for business.
"There's data to prove that the more diverse your board is, the better the decision making." For example, a 2016 study showed gender diversity is related positively to company performance.
Rosati gathered with hundreds of other women (and a handful of men) on Friday to mark International Women's Day at an event to discuss how to boost women in industries that are traditionally dominated by men.
