The Issue
Although we’re beginning to see gender diversity in corporations’ leadership teams, progress is stubbornly slow.
We’re here to change that.
Gender Diversity is Good for Corporations
Women leaders can bring transformational change to businesses; there has long been a broad agreement that gender diversity is good for business. This thinking has been backed up by significant research.
According to a report by McKinsey & Company, companies with greater gender diversity at the executive level are 25% more likely to experience above-average profitability compared to those with lower gender diversity. The gender gap also has a significant economic impact. If women were to participate more equally to men in the workplace, that could drive $28 trillion in growth—the size of the economies of the U.S. and China put together. On average, there would be an 11% increase in global GDP if every country achieved the fastest rate of progress toward gender equality in its workforce in its specific region.
Simply put, diverse teams are better positioned to help companies realize their goals and potential. But, despite many companies hiring women into entry-level positions, women have a difficult time advancing to more senior roles. Women advance more slowly through the promotion pipeline in comparison to their male peers.
According to Statistics Canada, women hold just over one in five of seats on board of director positions (20.5%). The majority of boards of directors don’t have any women directors (59.7%). Over one quarter (28.0%) of boards of directors had one woman director, while boards of directors with two or more women represented 12.3% of the dataset.
Women are less likely to be represented among top officers; women top officers were most likely to be executive vice-presidents (27.8%) and least likely to contribute in the role of chairperson (1.3%). Among other officers, women made up over half (58.9%) of the 1,437 assistant secretaries. In contrast, one in five (20.3%) treasurers were women.
The share of woman officers continues to grow at a slow pace.
So, to increase the number of women in leadership roles, we need to create more opportunities for women, challenge gender bias and stereotypes, and provide support for women to develop the necessary skills and networks.