Gender-based hypocrisy

As reported by the National Post on Tuesday, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) wants to see more women on the boards of publicly traded companies. It feels so strongly about this, in fact, that it has proposed delisting any company from the Toronto Stock exchange that has fewer than three female board members by 2020.

The OTPP was responding to a recent call for input by the Ontario Securities commission for ways to increase gender representation in canadian companies. It is ironic that the pension plan would call for such draconian measures, especially given its justification — Wayne Kozun, senior vice-president for public equities, said in his letter to the commission that “The selection of a minimum of three women on a board is rooted in the belief that board diversity yields more effective boards and better results for shareholders.”

but Mr. Kozun and his pension plan are already well-positioned to press for a desired social change. The OTPP controls an estimated $130-billion in assets. If it wishes to establish a policy that it will only invest in companies that meet its social responsibility standards — and that could include sufficient female representation in the boardroom — it can, and should, do that. Its moral leadership, not to mention deep pockets, would no doubt prove convincing to many publicly traded companies.

but calling for punitive action against companies that do not fit with the OTPP’s preferred corporate structure goes too far, and is frankly hypocritical. If it truly feels that a lack of women in the boardroom is a serious enough issue to expel a company from canada’s largest stock exchange, it would be interesting to know how the OTPP plans to punish Ontario schools for the fact that men do not even account for 30% of Ontario’s teachers, a number that’s dropping fast.

Perhaps the OTPP should concern itself with t his gender disparity among its own clients before lecturing the rest of us on the need to make gender-based investments mandatory.