View From the Top
With women occupying only 10 per cent of the C-suite in Canada, it’s far too lonely up there
On International Women’s Day, professional services firm Grant Thornton released its 20th annual report on the state of women in senior-ranking positions at mid-market companies around the world. It surveyed 5,000 executives at companies with valuations between US$100 million and US$4 billion. Findings revealed that progress in the promoting of women to leadership roles over the past two decades has been slow at best—and when it comes to the C-suite, frankly, pretty dire. In the past year, the global percentage of CEOs who are women dropped from 28 per cent to 19 per cent.
Following a trend noted at the world’s top corporations, many of the women CEOs at these mid-market firms left of their own accord. The reasons cited point to an unsettling truth: Not only is the climb to the top an against-the-odds feat but once women arrive there, they often face a psychologically unsafe environment that makes performing in their roles untenable.
We—women—have all experienced some degree of this at work. When I took the helm at Canadian Business, I expected some level of surprise within the media industry— my predecessors were men. But I didn’t expect the pushback. I’ve faced comments like “You don’t look like the editor of a business magazine,” and while the majority of feedback we’ve received about our redesign and more inclusive editorial mandate has been positive, there are many people who would have liked to see things stay the same as they’d always been.
This issue’s cover story (page 28) is one that I have wanted to produce since our relaunch. We spoke to six Canadian CEOs who are the first women to hold the top position in their companies’ history. A common theme in their stories is their dedication to enacting change within their organizations—and industries at large—to ensure that more women are promoted to senior positions. Herein lies the conundrum but also the solution: We need more women at the top in order to promote more women to the top.
In Canada, women make up 10 per cent of executive officer jobs, marking a record high. But less than two per cent of those women are BIPOC. Compared to the global trend, it is at least moving in the right direction here. While we have such a long way to go, the road map is clear. Grant Thornton’s report found that we can pave the way to parity by focusing on three key factors that impact women’s ability to thrive in leadership positions: a commitment from those in the C-suite to sponsor women for growth opportunities; a clear and measurable DEI strategy; and, crucially, greater flexibility— businesses with hybrid or flexible work models statistically have more women in senior roles.
Gender equity at work is on the horizon. We’re not stopping until we get there.