More women needed on company boards, Ottawa told
TORONTO — The Canadian government should require companies to fill at least 30 per cent of board positions with women by 2019, and to explain why if they don’t, an advisory panel says.
The final report of the government’s Advisory Council for Promoting Women on Boards, released Thursday, also recommends that publicly-traded companies set goals and timelines for more female involvement, give progress updates in their financial reports and explain why they’re succeeding or lagging behind.
“It takes leadership — a nudge and a push — for timelines and reporting,” Kellie Leitch, the minister of labour and status of women, said at a news conference. “There will be no quotas. If you’re elected because someone felt mandated to put you there, you’re ignored and not provided opportunity.”
Leitch said she’ll talk to CEOs of federally regulated and state-owned companies about implementing the recommendations and will review the data annually.
Women accounted for only 10 per cent of positions on Canadian boards in 2012, even though they held more than a third of business administration master’s degrees in 2011, and represented almost half of students at the master’s level in business and management programs in 2010, according to the report.
The Ontario Securities Commission said this year that companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange should report their policies for women in the workplace and targets for more representation. Leitch wants companies to comply so that “we’re not in a position where we’d be considering other options.” Those moves include reviewing the Financial Administration Act and Corporate Canada Act, though “that’s not being considered at all at this point,” she said.
“The current pool of talented women in the workforce with business skills, experience and education exceeds their levels of representation at the highest levels,” the panel said in the report. “A goal of 30 per cent over five years is a reasonable national threshold to aspire to” for board representation.
Of the 251 companies listed on the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index, only 11, or four per cent, have more than 30 per cent of their boards comprised of women, according to data from Bloomberg.