Representation in board rooms

The report found boards with a critical mass of at least 30% women outperform all-male boards or boards where women hold token roles. As well, female CEOs are linked with a 20% boost in stock price momentum, and female CFOs correlate to a 6% rise in profitability.

Yet in Canada, the majority is still male: The representation of women on boards is growing at a scant 1.6% per year. Women occupy only 34% of board roles and just over 24% of executive leadership positions.

This number is dramatically lower ― and in some cases, less than one percent – for women who are Black, racialized, Indigenous, members of the LGBTQ+ community and living with disabilities.

Specifically, racialized women have just 4.1% representation on S&P/TSX Composite company boards, and for Black women, representation is a mere 1.2%

On a broader North American scale, gender gaps may persist for another 95 years. Meanwhile, global parity could take nearly 130 years.

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A more inclusive future

WXN urges companies to work toward achieving full gender parity on boards. That translates to at least 40% female representation in executive leadership roles by 2030, inclusive of Black women, Indigenous women, women of colour, women with disabilities and LGBTQ+ women.

Part of that involves creating employee resource groups. It also means giving Gen Z employees the chance to flourish, as they “have high expectations for businesses around social impact.”

Almost half of Gen Z employees feel “stressed all or most of the time,” with women and other underrepresented groups reporting the highest levels of stress. In 2021, Gen Z employees represented 18% of the workforce in Canada.

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Nicholas completed his master's in journalism and communications at Western University. Since then, he's worked as a reporter at the Financial Post, Healthing.ca, Sustainable Biz Canada and more. Aside from reporting, he also has experience in web production, social media management, photography and video production. His work can also be found in the Toronto Star, Yahoo Finance Canada, Electric Autonomy Canada and Exclaim among others.

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