Annual Gender Diversity Data Tracking
Women continue to be under-represented in leadership and decision-making roles in Canada. As of January 1, 2020, federally-regulated companies are required to disclose the gender and non-gender diversity of boards and executive teams. The Prosperity Project™ Annual Gender-Diversity Data Tracking Initiative will build on this important first step. It will track women in executive roles, senior management roles and in the pipeline to senior management within Canada’s largest 500 public companies, crown corporations and private companies.
By establishing a research base, we will track the progress of women over time and shine a light on the progress individual organizations are making towards achieving gender parity at the top. We will identify and applaud those organizations that are leading the way. There is ample evidence that employers that have created inclusive workplaces with diversity at all levels of their organizations are employers of choice, attracting the best talent and better serving the needs of their increasingly diverse customer bases.
We recognize that different approaches are required to meet the distinct needs of all Canadian women. This means that in our research, we will apply intersectional identities and inclusivity lenses to shine a light on the women themselves, in order to understand the representation of women who also identify as Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit and Métis), women of colour, persons with disabilities and/or LGBTQ2+. This data is currently not being compiled and fails to provide transparency, accountability and human resource policies and practices that disproportionately disadvantage women especially in promotions, succession planning and compensation decision-making.
2021 Annual Report Card on Gender Diversity and Leadership: The Zero Report
The 2021 Annual Report Card is our country’s starting point, ground zero. It reflects our vision of zero barriers to inclusion. It is a nod to what is known as a result of disclosure by TSX-listed companies and CBCA-governed corporations subject to disclosure requirements.
The 2021 Annual Report Card shines an important light on a group of organizations that are at the forefront of tackling gender diversity through collecting race-based data. This groundbreaking research sets a new standard for collecting and reporting gender diversity and leadership in Canada, and is the first to:
Present intersectional data (women who also identify as BIPOC and/or living with disabilities) on women in leadership roles;
Look at the representation of women in board, executive officer and in the pipeline to executive officer roles across the economy in some of Canada’s largest organizations; and
Provide three snapshots in time to determine if Canadian women at the leadership level are being disproportionately affected by the current crisis: March 31, 2019; March 31, 2020; and September 30, 2020.
The Prosperity Project is grateful to our 2021 Annual Report Card on Gender Diversity and Leadership Co-Presenting and Data Analytics Partner KPMG in Canada, and Partners BMO Financial Group, CPP Investments, Franco-Nevada, RBC, and TELUS, for their ongoing commitment to mitigating the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Canadian women.
