You can't fix a problem without acknowledging there's a problem. But according to most of the men disproportionately occupying boardrooms across the Canada, nothing needs to change in terms of gender representation at the top.
The idea that it's a smart business decision to have more women in boardrooms isn't debatable anymore. We know boards with women on them outperform their rivals, deliver higher returns and are more aggressive about taking initiative and refusing to accept poor company performance.
We also know that boards with women on them have a greater collective intelligence than those with a less diverse gender makeup. Indeed, such a strong body of evidence exists that you'd think board chairs would be standing on street corners with sandwich boards begging the best and brightest women to join their ranks. Sadly, that's not the case.
Inching toward progress
Two recent reports indicate we're moving at such a glacial pace in this area that we're virtually standing still. According to the Canadian Board Diversity Council's 2017 annual report card, women occupy 22.6 per cent of FP500 board seats – an increase of just one percentage point over the previous year. That figure represents the smallest percentage increase since the council published its first annual report card in 2010.
Meanwhile, Women in the Workplace 2017, a study sponsored by LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company, found women remain underrepresented at every level and progress is stalling, even though there's no shortage of initiatives to retain and promote more of them.
The stats reveal the scope of the problem. But what's more striking is the number of respondents who don't even think we have one: 94 per cent of the board directors surveyed in the Canadian Board Diversity Council report said they believed the issue of board diversity was extremely important, but nearly 86 per cent of them said the board they were serving on was already diverse (and we know, of course, that most boards are not).
And in the Women in the Workplace study, a lot more men than women thought that the men and women in their companies were on a level playing field. So you'll have to forgive me if I'm not celebrating on this International Women's Day.
One complaint I hear a lot is that boards can't find enough qualified women. That might be a problem if the board in question is only willing to consider candidates with "president" or "CEO" already in their titles, or women that have committee-specific experience. But boards need to look beyond the these titles and other strict experience-related requirements and instead assess candidates based on their potential.
One reason I was able to become a president was my company's willingness to let me run business areas that were new to me. My boss didn't make me vice-president of sales because of my sales experience — I didn't have any. He believed I had other assets. Similarly, when I joined the board of the SickKids Foundation, I was asked to sit on the HR committee, even though I had no background or training in that area. The board took the view that a strong leader knows how to find out what she needs to know, and despite having no background in HR, I eventually became chair of the HR committee.
from CBC | Top Stories News http://ift.tt/2oY4Sbj
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