Equality in the boardroom? Not any time soon, says Canadian Chamber of Commerce
Women are a minority in Canadian boardrooms and the "glacial" pace of progress means it could take decades to reach gen‐ der 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 em‐ ployment, making up 48 per cent of the workforce. But many never reach the most senior ranks - the most re‐ cent 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 Sta‐ tistics Canada data on publi‐ cly-traded corporations.
WATCH | Why these women are on a mission to balance boardrooms:
Pulling women across the pipeline
The chamber pointed to outdated corporate culture as well as poor recruitment and retention practices as reasons for why women of‐ ten struggle to move beyond middle management to top jobs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 Or‐ ganisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Countries that have better representa‐ tion 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 in‐ vested in properly," said Ab‐ dou.
She said if companies want to improve their bal‐ ance in the boardroom, they should take steps from track‐ ing hiring and promotions to offering opportunities for up‐ skilling and flexible work.
"Making sure that we're holding corporations and other stakeholders account‐ able … is going to be really quite a game changer."
Empowering the next generation
Despite the findings, Deb‐ orah Rosati said she's opti‐ mistic. She founded Women Get on Board, an organiza‐ tion 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 deci‐ sion making." For example, a 2016 study showed gender diversity is related positively to company performance.
Rosati gathered with hun‐ dreds 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 in‐ dustries that are traditionally dominated by men.
Chantal Gosselin, a direc‐ tor at four mining com‐ panies, said for her it had been challenging over the years to break beliefs that women couldn't advance in the mining industry. She en‐ couraged women just start‐ ing their journeys to get on the board of a non-profit for the experience.
"It's still something that we need to work hard on, and that I'm encouraging at the board level."
Europe has rules
Some lawmakers haven't waited for businesses to act. In 2022, the European Union passed a law that large public companies must ensure that women make up 40 per cent of board members. Firms that don't meet this goal could face fines.
Roberta Metsola, presi‐ dent of the European Parlia‐ ment, said at the time that she thought it was telling that the negotiations took more than a decade to com‐ plete. "We have managed to at least put a proper crack in the glass ceiling."
In Canada, federally-incor‐ porated public companies have been required to dis‐ close the number of women on their boards since 2015, though there are no manda‐ tory targets.
Kiwana Scott, who works in customer service at a notfor-profit organization, said she'd like to see faster progress in this country, and hopes one day she'll get her own seat at the table.
"Seeing women in those positions kind of drives me and shows me that I can make it there too."