Despite widespread support for more female representation on Canadian boards, the number of women serving in these roles is not growing significantly, according to the Canadian Board Diversity Council (CBDC).
In its annual report card, released November 25, the CBDC states that the percentage of female representation on the boards of Canada’s 500 largest companies has increased by 1.2 percentage points over the last year, from 14.4% in 2012 to 15.6%.
At this rate, the report said, gender parity will not be reached until 2097.
“Canada is a nation that counts diversity as one of our greatest strengths and, in order to realize our potential for growth, it is imperative that organizations commit to increasing the diversity of our business leadership,” said Bill Thomas, CEO and senior partner at KPMG LLP, one of the sponsors of the report.
“In today’s globalized market, it is necessary to have a diversity of perspectives and experience in order to benefit from effective and balanced decision making.”
The report states that in a survey of directors, 93% responded that board diversity is important, while 61% said their boards did not have a formal diversity policy, and that such a policy was not necessary.
“The significant increase in responses to the 2013 CBDC annual survey reflects the increasing attention directors are paying to diversity on their boards,” said Dr. Michael Bloom, vice-president, organizational effectiveness and learning at the Conference Board of Canada, which conducted the survey on the CBDC’s behalf.
“Yet, the survey’s results yield a sobering picture of the slow pace of change around the boardroom table.”
CBDC said that corporate Canada must actively work to change the composition of its boards, with a goal of seeing the percentage of women increase to 20% by 2015 and 30% to 2018.
Other findings of the survey include:
- women hold the greatest percentage of board seats in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector, with 26.6% of board seats, followed by financial and insurance, with 23.3%;
- women hold the fewest seats in construction, mining, oil and gas and agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting
- the presence of a diversity policy had a clear correlation with the percentage of female directors, with 33% of companies in the finance and insurance sectors having such a policy, while only 9% of mining, oil and gas companies have these guidelines in place.
