Last year, about a third of Canadian companies had no women in top leadership positions. The Catalyst 2010 survey also reveals that companies with more female executives outperformed the rest. Women leaders in Canada have only increased slightly, however, from 16.9% in 2008 to 17.7% in 2010.
Mercer recently published the results of a survey conducted in partnership with Diversity Executive and Talent Management magazines. It found that 82% of Canadian companies do not have any special strategies in place for promoting women to top leadership positions. This is above the global average of 71%, and of the U.S. rate of 70%. A little over half (53%) of Canadian women surveyed think their company offers no—or insufficient—support in this regard.
There is some good news, however—the number of companies studied by Catalyst with at least one quarter of top positions held by women increased by almost 8% in two years. Although much progress remains to be made, this is a step in the right direction for Canada.