Hamilton doing poor job at hiring woman leaders: study

Hamilton is doing a poor job of putting women in high-ranking positions, and the city is suffering as a result, say the authors of a new report about gender diversity among the city’s leaders.

The city is still lagging when it comes to female managers, union heads, lawyers and other positions of power, says a report released by the YWCA Hamilton, McMaster University and the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce’s women’s leadership committee.

Only one-third of elected officials are women, the report shows, and women make up only 19 per cent of corporate executives.

And despite more women than men graduating from Canadian law schools, it says, fewer are practising law for reasons such as family obligations, and only 28.6 per cent of judges, Crown attorneys and legal firm partners are women.

Hamilton is likely suffering financially, socially and creatively from the imbalance, said Karen Bird, report co-author and an associate professor in McMaster’s political science department.

“Organizations that are more inclusive perform better and have better financial and organizational outcomes,” Bird said. They also have lower rates of attrition and more job satisfaction.

And "the more inclusive our major public and private institutions are, the fairer they are," she said.

The report was released Thursday, and analyzed both Hamilton and Halton. Overall, women account for an average of 34.9 per cent of the leadership positions in Hamilton compared to 38.6 per cent in Halton.

Bird, researcher Samantha Jackson and a team of students compiled data for 2,563 leaders across nine sectors. A McMaster grant of about $10,000 funded the study.

The group is planning more reports, said Denise Doyle, CEO of YWCA Hamilton. The next will be about ethnic diversity in leadership roles, which she hopes will be released within a year.

It’s important to monitor these things, she said.

“It matters if we’re really going to continue to encourage women’s leadership, and more importantly, try to ensure that those numbers continue to change."

The report is part of the Women and Diversity EXCLerator Project. 

Percentage of women in Hamilton in leadership roles

• Elected officials: 33.3 per cent
• Agencies, boards and commissions: 28.7
• Education boards and executives: 28.7
• Health boards and executives: 35.9
• Public sector executives: 34.8
• Corporate boards and executives: 19
• Voluntary boards and executives: 46.1
• Union leaders: 31.3
• Legal sector leaders: 28.6