Women in executive leadership drive Canadian success

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.