Few cracks in glass ceiling: study
Women account for one in every eight corporate directorships in Canada, according to a study of Canada's top 500 companies.
The report conducted late last year by Catalyst Canada Inc. also notes that women have made little progress since 2003 in cracking the glass ceiling.
The percentage of women on corporate boards has risen by 0.8 of a percentage point in the past three years, to 12 per cent, suggests the study released on Wednesday.
- FULL STUDY: Census of Women Board Directors of the FP500
And the ratio is only a little higher at publicly traded companies. About 9.2 per cent of directors on these companies are women, up from nine per cent in 2003.
"The number of women on FP500 boards clearly does not reflect their true impact on the Canadian economy as wage earners, managers, professionals, consumers, investors and business owners," said Catalyst senior director Sonya Kunkel.
The New York-based research group focuses on women's issues. Its blue-chip sponsors include Chubb Insurance Company of Canada, Hudson's Bay Co., Inco Ltd., ING Canada Inc., Linamar Corporation and Scotiabank.
"Canada needs, and will benefit greatly from, much stronger representation from qualified women in the ranks of our corporate directors," said Bill MacKinnon, CEO of KPMG LLP in Canada and a member of the Catalyst board.
"The pool of talented women, qualified and available for board responsibilities, has grown significantly in recent years," added Claude Dussault, CEO of ING Canada, one of the sponsors of the study. "Catalyst's study shows that the larger Canadian companies are not yet taking advantage of this opportunity."
Catalyst did, however, turn up a few signs of progress on the corporate front.
The recent study showed 28.5 per cent of the directors of Crown corporations were women, up from 23.7 per cent in 2003.
The percentage of companies with at least one woman board director has increased to 52.8 per cent from 48.6 per cent in 2003.
The percentage of companies with multiple women board directors has increased almost 4.0 points to 25.8 per cent since 2001.
And women chaired five of the 244 publicly traded companies on the FP500, up from a meagre three companies in 2003.
Catalyst also found that some industries tend to have more women than others. Insurance, real estate, financial services, retailers and entertainment have more women, while gold, mining, construction, engineering and information technology had fewer.
Companies in the United States have slightly more women directors than Canadian ones, 13.6 per cent compared to 12 per cent, respectively, of all director.
But the number of U.S. companies with at least one board seat held by a woman is nearly double that of Canadian companies. According to the study, 89.2 per cent of Fortune 500 companies have at least one board seat held by a woman, compared with just more than half in 2003.