Since 2014, the percentage of administrative positions occupied by women has increased from 11% to 27%, still far from the global benchmark, which places the optimal gender parity zone between 40 and 60%.
Thus, nine years after the coming into force, on December 31, 2014, of the Regulation respecting information regarding governance practices of the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA), we are still observing a slow rise of women in senior management. companies. CSA data, covering a group of 602 reporting issuers listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, whose year-end fell between December 31, 2022 and March 31, 2023, also indicates that the number of them with at least a woman on their board now stands at 89%, up from 49% in the first edition of the annual review. This therefore means that there is still no female director for 11% of these issuers. In addition, barely 8% of board chair positions are held by women.
The observations are even more problematic regarding senior operations management. We learn that 71% of the issuers listed have at least one woman in first-level management positions, only 5% in the position of CEO and 17% in that of Chief Financial Officer. And if 64% have adopted a policy of female representation within their board, only 43% have set targets. This percentage of issuers having set a target for female representation this time within their senior management falls… to 5%.
In her commentary on the 2023 data, Louise Champoux-Paillé, certified company administrator, notes that an aspect deserving attention is this weak evolution in the presence of women in senior management positions and the few issuers who are equipping themselves of targets to increase this number. “When such targets exist for boards of directors, issuers that adopt policies have more women than those that do not,” she emphasizes.
Certainly, the absence of targets for these high functions is an explanatory factor. Mme Champoux-Paillé also added to the equation, last year, an analysis recalling that the choice of part-time or a job offering the flexibility necessary for work-family balance has repercussions both on long-term remuneration and on choosing career paths. This choice often means that women will opt for support jobs (called “staff”) rather than those directly linked to the business model or the day-to-day activities of the organization (called “line”). “However, we know that support jobs more rarely lead to positions of president and CEO, vice-president of subsidiaries or business units,” she added. With the domino effect, experience as CEO remains an important criterion in the selection of a director.
The Nobel Prize in Economics
Economist Claudia Goldin, who has just received the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics for her work on the participation of women in the labor market – described as one of the most significant economic and social facts of the 20th centurye century — also made this parenthood a key factor in his work on the under-representation of women and the income gap. With, also as a central theme, this family-professional life balance which, despite the widespread recovery of the theme today, still encounters resistance within a number of companies. More in the best paid jobs.
Focusing on the American framework, she observed that income inequalities were frequently measured even between men and women – or even between two women – exercising the same profession, to establish a correlation with the birth of the first child. “His work also demonstrated that “access to the contraceptive pill” played an important role in accelerating the increase in education levels during the 20th century.e century, by “offering new possibilities for career planning,” according to the Nobel committee’s comments quoted by The Canadian Press.
The economic historian from Harvard University has demonstrated that the entry and exit of American women from the labor market responds to societal changes, shocks or external incentives: economic mobilization and industrial development resulting from the Second World War, the appearance of the contraceptive pill, the arrival of a child… But also to recruitment or career management practices of companies and organizations, sums up the specialized media well. The echoes.
So that women can enjoy the same pay and the same career opportunities as their colleagues, the conclusions of the Nobel-winning researcher call for a structural change and an evolution of social and organizational norms in terms of parental responsibility with regard to his home and his family.
Without commenting on the work of Mme Goldin, but speaking of the urgency of reimagining the world of work, Mme Champoux-Paillé points out that the career path within medium and large organizations is fundamentally linear. It is based on knowledge, experiences, relationships developed over time and power gradually acquired as the ranks are moved up, primarily with the aim of creating economic value for the organization.