Women on Boards

Introduction

Highlights: Knowledge Exchange Forum - Women on Boards

March 11, 2013 - An impressive group of individuals - representatives from the public and private sectors as well as non-governmental organizations - recently met in Ottawa to share their experiences and insights about how to increase women's representation on private sector boards in Canada. These video highlights feature perspectives from many of the thought leaders who gathered for this important Knowledge Exchange Forum organized by the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Status of Women Senior Officials.

---

Status of Women Canada promotes and advances equality between women and men. Among the organization's priorities are: increasing women's economic security and prosperity as well as advancing the role of women in leadership and decision-making. These are consistent with the Government of Canada's top priorities of creating jobs, growth and long-term prosperity for the benefit of all Canadians.

One of the realities of Canada's economy is that Canadian women remain under-represented in positions of top economic leadership, especially on boards of directors. This is in spite of the fact that women have an equal capacity with men for excellence in all aspects of Canadian life, including corporate leadership. At the same time, research shows that businesses with more women on their boards of directors can outperform those with fewer.

To address this challenge and build on the 2012 Economic Action Plan commitment, on April 5, 2013, the Honourable Rona Ambrose, Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for Status of Women, introduced an Advisory Council to promote the participation of women on corporate boards.

View a video produced by the European Commission that promotes the participation of women on corporate boards.*

---

*This video is posted on an external website. For more information on information posted externally, please see our Disclaimer.

Business Case

The Business Case

Canadian women have high levels of education, training, leadership skills, and business experience. Their talents and capabilities are a competitive advantage for the Canadian economy.

Yet in many ways, the "glass ceiling" still exists in Canada. While women now represent 47.5%¹ of the Canadian workforce, they hold just 26.6%² of senior management positions and 14.5%³ of total board seats at Financial Post 500 companies in Canada.

Further information on increasing the number of women on boards can be found in The Business Case for Women on Boards booklet. The Federal/Provincial/Territorial (FPT) Ministers responsible for the Status of Women commissioned The Conference Board of Canada to prepare this resource.

• View The Business Case for Women on Boards booklet in HTML
• View The Business Case for Women on Boards booklet in PDF (14 pages, 224.20 KB)*

Rationale for Action

A growing body of research in recent years has identified elements of the business case which supports advancing more women into senior roles such as on boards of directors. It is becoming more and more clear that increasing the number of women on boards can produce real returns for employees, customers, shareholders and other stakeholders.

Elements of the business case include:

• Bringing diverse perspectives, skills and experience that improve overall business decision-making;
• Adding unique management and governance qualities to an organization, which can improve financial performance;
• Encouraging creation of innovative products and services that better reflect marketplace demographics;
• Leveraging the widest possible talent pool;
• Improving a firm's image and reputation for diversity; and,
• Enhancing a firm's capacity to recruit/retain female talent.

To read more on the business case for increasing women on boards, see the resource section.

• ¹ Statistics Canada,   Table   282-0002 -  Labour force survey estimates (LFS), by sex and detailed age group, annual (persons unless otherwise noted), CANSIM (database).
• ² Statistics Canada, Table 282-0010 - Labour force survey estimates (LFS), by National Occupational Classification for Statistics (NOC-S) and sex, annual (persons unless otherwise noted), CANSIM (database).
• ³ Liz Mulligan-Ferry, Morgan Friedrich, and Sabra Nathanson, 2011 Catalyst Census: Financial Post 500 Women Board Directors (Catalyst, 2012).

Advisory Council

On April 5, 2013 at the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Honourable Rona Ambrose, Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for Status of Women, introduced members of the federal government's Advisory Council to promote the participation of women on corporate boards. It is expected to provide recommendations by the fall of 2013.

The Advisory Council will undertake the following activities:

• Provide advice on how industry can increase women's representation on corporate boards.
• Suggest how industry and government can track and measure progress in this initiative and what tools, if any, government should employ to achieve this goal.
• Make recommendations on how the government could recognize leaders in industry and applaud companies that have succeeded in reaching their targets.

Members - Advisory Council for Promoting Women on Boards

The new Advisory Council is comprised of women and men representing a wide range of experience within the corporate sector. All have distinguished themselves as inspired, forward-thinking leaders and decision-makers committed to the principles of equality, diversity and excellence in our country's boardrooms. Find out more about the members.

Resources

• Catalyst Pyramid: Canadian Women in Business (Catalyst)
• The Bottom Line: Corporate performance & women's representation on boards (Catalyst)
• Women director appointments as a trend (Canadian Spencer Stuart Board Index)  
• Canadian Board Diversity Council 2011 Report Card (Canadian Board Diversity Council) (PDF format, 28 pages, 2.24 MB) *
• Diversity in the Boardroom (Institute of Corporate Directors) (PDF format, 12 pages, 177.44 MB) *
• Gender Diversity and Corporate Performance (Credit Suisse 2012) (PDF format, 32 pages, 2.68 MB) *
• Women Matter 2012: Making the Breakthrough (McKinsey & Co.)
• Get On Board Corporate Canada (TD Economics) (PDF format, 9 pages, 975.65 KB) *

---

* In order to open, view, navigate and print PDF files, it is necessary to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your system. If you do not have this software, it is downloadable free of charge. Click here to download Adobe Acrobat Reader, and follow the instructions to install it.