Catalyst wants women in charge (elsewhere)
Seriously? For the second consecutive time, the group that aims to accelerate progress for women through workplace inclusion couldn’t find a woman to chair its own board of directors.
Late last week, Catalyst Canada announced that Victor Dodig will replace Bill Downe as chairman. Dodig may well be a very nice guy and all that. Since he is CEO of CIBC, he’s clearly a competent manager. His predecessor, Downe, is also probably a good guy. As the Bank of Montreal’s CEO, he too knows a thing or three about management. But are they really the best people to lead a national organization that is supposed to be about women? Does it really further the cause when there’s still a man at the head of the table?
It’s true that both of their banks have produced admirable policy statements about inclusion, diversity, et cetera. But if they were actually delivering, why isn’t a high-flying female banker chairing Catalyst?
Ironically, another of Canada’s big banks, RBC, seemed to have no problem finding a woman to chair its board. Four years ago, Kathleen Turner was appointed and became the first woman in Canada to hold that role at a major bank.
It’s 2017. We’ve had a genderbalanced federal cabinet for two years without problems. Yet not one of Canada’s domestic banks has a female CEO or even a chief economist. Of their 43 senior executives, only nine are women. That’s 21 per cent. But those female executives only get 10 per cent of the $214 million in total executive compensation.
So, why does Catalyst value bank CEOs so highly?
It has been left to executive director Tanya van Biesen to defend Dodig’s appointment.
“This is a real reflection of what we believe: That it’s critical to engage men in the dialogue of gender balance … to eradicate this problem,” she told the Toronto Star. “This is not just a women’s problem; it’s a societal problem.”
Yes, it is a societal problem, but continuing with fatherknows-best appointments may not exactly be sending a strong message of change.
Now, to be fair, Dodig ’s CIBC does better than the average Canadian bank. But he’s already been lauded for it as one of five 2017 Catalyst Canada Honours Champions. (Of those five champions, by the way, only one was a woman.)
Dodig is a member of the 30% Club Canada, which has a goal of women making up 30 per cent of corporate boards and the executive ranks by 2022.
At CIBC, three of 11 senior executives are women, and its 17-member board has seven female directors. Hold on a minute — CIBC has a higher percentage of female board members than Catalyst does. Catalyst’s 19-member board has only seven female directors. That might be part of the problem.
Among the tasks its directors are supposed to fulfil is contributing names to a list of boardready women that is shared with other companies. It seems axiomatic that female directors and female executives are more likely to know more women like them than men do. Certainly, that is the excuse that men have used for years when asked why they don’t promote more women — they just don’t know any, or they just don’t know enough of them.
Obviously, having male allies like Dodig and Downe in the long struggle for women’s equality is important and beneficial. Their advocacy among male colleagues is invaluable. But they don’t need to hold down the top spot.
Even if Catalyst’s directors were intent on having a leader from the financial industry at the helm, they might have taken their own advice and looked harder. Had they searched west beyond the Golden Triangle (Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal) they might have found two strong leaders. Out here on the edge of Canada, two women lead the two largest credit unions in the country outside Quebec — Vancity’s CEO Tamara Vrooman and Coast Capital Savings’ COO Kathy McGarrigle.
Their success and that of their organizations supports Catalyst’s research and scores of other studies done by international organizations that have all found having women at all levels of corporations, non-profit organizations and governments makes them better.
According to the World Economic Forum’s 2016 Gender Gap Report, Canada ranks 36th among 144 countries when it comes to economic participation and opportunity, even though Canada is first when it comes to educational attainment.
By declining to lead by example, Catalyst is failing all the Canadian women who are doing what they’ve been told will lead to success. They are getting an education and they are working hard, yet they’re still not anywhere close to reaping the rewards and attaining the jobs of their male colleagues.
The failure to reflect its own values also dilutes Catalyst’s message and the one that Dodig champions: Gender diversity leads to better decision-making, stronger financial performance and increased innovation.