Catalyst should lead by example in promoting gender equity

Catalyst Canada, an advocacy organization “dedicated to accelerating progress for women through workplace inclusion in Canada,” has found itself in the news in a way that is distracting from its important mandate.

CIBC chief executive Victor Dodig, a man, has been named chair of the organization’s advisory board. He replaces Bank of Montreal CEO Bill Downe, another man, in the role.

It’s important that powerful men denounce and work to correct the persistent problem of gender disparity in the corporate world and elsewhere. And no doubt Dodig brings talent, valuable experience and a laudable commitment to equity to the position, as his predecessor did.

At the same time, however, it’s inconceivable that an organization whose mandate is to increase the representation of women in the corporate world could not have found highly competent women to fill this role — twice.

“This is kind of ironic. As an organization you might want your leader to be a reflection of your stated mandate,” said Trish Hennessy, director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ Ontario office. Hennessy’s organization has done much to highlight the continuing gaps in pay between men and women, an issue no doubt exacerbated by the lack of women in executive roles.

Catalyst should lead by example. Its work is profoundly valuable, not only because gender parity is a righteous goal. Nor simply because gender balance in executive roles is bound to have a self-reinforcing effect, inspiring more women to seek out top corporate jobs. But also because it’s good for business.

As Catalyst points out, companies with three or more women directors in at least four of five years significantly outperformed those with sustained low representation by an astonishing 84 per cent on return on sales, 60 per cent on return on invested capital and 46 per cent on return on equity.

Yet women are still vastly underrepresented in the upper echelons of corporate Canada. At domestic banks, for instance, women are still in the minority when it comes to top executives. Only nine, or 21 per cent, of the 43 named executives at the eight banks are women, according to regulatory disclosures. And those women only earned 10 per cent — not 21 per cent — of the $214 million the executives earned in total.

The numbers are even worse among other TSX-listed companies, as a 2016 report by law firm Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP revealed. Despite a push by the Ontario Securities Commission to improve female representation on corporate boards of directors, nearly half of all publicly traded Ontario companies still have zero women on their boards. Further, women held only about 13 per cent of all board seats, up just one per cent from the year before. This, in a country where more women than men graduate from university.

Defending Catalyst’s decision to appoint another man to chair its advisory board, the organization’s Toronto-based executive director Tanya van Biesen said that men, who lead 95 per cent of companies in North America, play a very important role in the advancement of women in the workplace.

“We need to engage them to advance change,” she said.

That is no doubt true. But it doesn’t mean they have to lead.

As Biesen’s predecessor, Alex Johnston, said about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau naming a gender parity cabinet, it isn’t talented women who are in short supply. It’s the demand for them that has been lacking.

Apparently that’s true even at Catalyst.

The organization has an important mandate that would be well served through leadership by example.