As Women’s History Month draws to a close, I have been reflecting on the increased role women have been playing on corporate boards over the last 20 years. In many ways, much progress has been made, but there is continued room for boards in Canada to fully embrace equality of opportunity and contribution in the boardroom.

Learning from International Perspectives

I recently participated in an international webinar looking at the status of women serving on boards in Canada, France and Sweden, and it helped me reflect on Canada’s own journey compared to these two other jurisdictions.

France introduced quotas in 2011, requiring at least 40% women on the boards of listed companies or other companies with at least 500 employees or revenue over 50M€ (to be achieved within 6 years). The legislation also provided a sanction for non-compliance – directors were not paid if their boards were not in compliance! Today, France’s boards are approximately 46% women.

Sweden never introduced quotas for women on boards, unlike other Scandinavian countries such as Norway and Denmark, which introduced quotas in the early 2000s. In Sweden, equality between women and men is a constitutional norm captured in legislation and an explicit policy objective that is monitored by the Swedish Gender Equality Agency. It is felt that this essential cultural foundation has contributed significantly to opportunities for women on boards. Today, women hold 40% of listed company board seats and executive teams are made up of 30% women.

Canada’s Progress Toward Diverse Boardrooms

Canada’s own journey around women on boards has been long and slow. At the time Doreen McKenzie Sanders* and I hosted our first governance conference for women in the early 2000s, the number of women on corporate boards stood at about 6%. There was minimal movement until the Ontario Securities Commission introduced its Representation of Women Disclosure Requirement in 2014, followed by various 30% initiatives including the 30% Club (2015), the Catalyst Accord (2016, pledge to increase the number of women on boards to 30% by 2022), and ISS and Glass Lewis guidance regarding 30% gender diversity (2023).

Based on Osler’s recent 2024 Diversity Disclosure Report, the number of women on listed company boards in Canada today is a hair under 30% (with those companies in the S&P/TSX Composite Index at about 38% women, and the rest averaging around 23%). Osler’s view is that progress is slowing for women on boards. Perhaps the 30% benchmark which was once seen as a stretch is now a form of anchor.

While the number of women has been the primary focus of diversity on boards for the last 10 years, the concept of diversity is broadening. In 2020, the Canada Business Corporations Act was amended to require companies under that Act to disclose boards seats held by women, Indigenous People, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities, and in 2023 ISS and Glass Lewis came out in support of Indigenous and culturally or ethnically diverse board members. According to Osler’s 2024 Report, approximately 10% of board seats are held by visible minorities (up from about 5% in 2020) and 1% by Indigenous Peoples, with no real increases in these figures from 2023.

The Meritocracy Myth

While progress has been made in Canada over the last ten years with respect to women and other aspects of diversity, there are some who argue that the push for diversity is driven by a “woke ideology,” and companies should not be forced to address this social phenomenon. Others express the need for meritocracy, as if it is an either/or situation and exhibiting the unspoken belief that there are fewer individuals in the ranks of women or other under-represented groups who have the required skills and experience.

The argument of “but we need to have skills” is a manifestation of conscious or unconscious bias. Over the 20+ years I have been involved in recruiting directors I have always found top talent within diverse candidate pools. Our firm’s approach is to look for top talent and our push for diversity is to ensure we find and include ALL capable candidates. It takes commitment and an intentional approach to ensure that candidates are not arbitrarily or even accidentally excluded from consideration. No candidate ever wants to be appointed as a token to fill a diversity spot; that is not what this is about. It is about ensuring we include the exceptional talent that is out there, and provide an even playing field. When we do, we get multiplying benefits; the benefit of truly finding the most capable talent, because we have done the work to include everyone, and the well-established benefit of diversity in decision-making.

The argument that policies to increase diversity are woke and should not be encouraged is misguided. In Canada’s history, and in our present, women, Indigenous people, racialized people, and other equity-seeking groups have not enjoyed the same privilege as others. Failure to be proactive in ensuring equity and inclusion is tantamount to enabling the same old culture of conscious and unconscious bias and discrimination.

Shaping a Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Future for Canadian Boards

We believe that companies, and their boards and executive teams, shape the future. Canadian corporations, as significant influencers in our country, should embrace equality of opportunity and ensure their processes at the board, executive and employee level, enable the equitable consideration of candidates from any and every background.

As we look forward, our firm remains focused on finding top talent, and removing barriers that would exclude any members of the population from being equitably considered for board and CEO positions. We will continue to broaden our outreach to ensure we are accessing an unrestricted talent pool, work with clients to help them mitigate conscious or unconscious bias, and continue our own journey of learning.

This art piece hangs in our Vancouver office. It serves as a reminder of the many talented (and brave) women who have advanced our world. One of my heroes is Rosa Parks, who, in 1943, stayed firm in her bus seat when ordered to move, eventually resulting in bus segregation being deemed unconstitutional. In making her decision to sit firm, she said “I felt a determination cover my body like a quilt on a winter night.”

We all need to bring our determination to areas where we have influence. As Women’s History Month draws to a close I salute all who have worked so hard on advancing women and other diverse groups on boards, and look forward to continuing on this path with determination.

*The late Doreen McKenzie Sanders was a pioneer and relentless advocate for women on boards. I was fortunate to collaborate with Doreen in 2002 to host a top-rated governance conference exclusively for women and to support her as a director of Women in the Lead, a publication she initiated in response to corporate leaders who said “we’d love to appoint women but we don’t know where to find them”. Doreen’s book, Women in the Lead, was one of the first resources to highlight women with corporate and professional backgrounds who were serving on boards. Fortunately, today, there are many such resources and many groups working hard to illuminate director candidates from across all under-represented groups.