In 2020, women occupied just over one-fifth (20.5 per cent) of the 17,996 seats on Canadian boards of directors, edging up 0.3 percentage points over the proportion of women recorded in 2019, according to a new study released Monday by Statistics Canada.
Sora Shimazaki
“The majority of boards of directors did not have any women directors: 59.7 per cent of the 5,810 boards of directors included in the dataset were only composed of men. Over one-quarter (28.0 per cent) of boards of directors had one woman director, while boards of directors with two or more women directors represented 12.3 per cent of the dataset,” said the federal agency.
“Educational services was the only industry in which boards of directors reached gender parity: in 2020, half of its directors were women. However, with 30 board seats, educational services was the industry with both the fewest directors and the fewest women directors. The finance and insurance industry displayed the second highest share of women directors, with women occupying 26.7 per cent of its board seats. Corporations classified as utilities had the third highest share (25.3 per cent) of women directors, followed by corporations operating in the transportation and warehousing industry (22.8 per cent). The agriculture industry had the lowest share of women directors, with one in 20 board seats being occupied by women.”
Share of women on corporate boards, by industry, 2020
“As in previous years, women in leadership positions were less likely to occupy top officer positions. In 2020, women made up a smaller proportion of top officers than of other officers: they held less than one-quarter (23.7 per cent) of top officer positions and over one-third (35.8 per cent) of other officer positions,” said the report.
“Women top officers were most likely to be executive vice-presidents (27.8 per cent) and least likely to contribute in the role of chairperson (1.3 per cent). Among other officers, women made up over half (58.9 per cent) of the 1,437 assistant secretaries. In contrast, one in five (20.3 per cent) treasurers were women.”
Mario Toneguzzi
(Mario Toneguzzi is Managing Editor of Canada’s Podcast. He has more than 40 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist, and editor. He worked for 35 years at the Calgary Herald, covering sports, crime, politics, health, faith, city and breaking news, and business. He works as well as a freelance writer for several national publications and as a consultant in communications and media relations/training. Mario was named in 2021 as one of the Top 10 Business Journalists in the World by PR News – the only Canadian to make the list)
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