Business doing poor job promoting women: survey

Only 14 per cent of Canadian companies have a formal plan for promoting women to their boards — and only 7 per cent set specific targets, according to a review of a new “comply or explain” regulation.

Among companies that don’t have a plan, most said they think targets are ineffective or arbitrary and they prefer to promote based on merit, the survey by the staff of the Canadian Securities Administrators found.

The findings provide insight into what’s preventing women from breaking the glass ceiling, said an ethical investment funds manager.

“It’s going to be tremendously helpful to us,” said Michelle de Cordova, director of corporate engagement at NEI Investments, which runs Canada’s oldest and largest ethical mutual fund.

“It will help us frame up the questions we’ll be asking companies about diversity. Gender diversity af- fects our vote on director nominees.”

The data was collected six months after a majority of Canadian provincial and territorial regulators adopted a “comply or explain” policy aimed at improving women’s representation among corporate elite.

The policy requires companies to annually disclose the number of women on their boards and in their highest executive ranks and also any plans for promoting more of them. If they opt not to, the companies must explain why not in public filings. The study found:

49 per cent of companies have a least one woman on their boards.

A slightly larger group (60 per cent) have a least one woman among their executive officers.

Only19 per cent of companies have adopted term limits for corporate directors, ensuring more frequent turnover, seen as another way to speed up the promotion of women.

Only 15 per cent of companies had added one or more women to their board in 2015.