In Quebec, some directors who sit on Crown corporations will have to leave their positions within two years. The government of Quebec is in fact preparing a bill to review the governance of its public corporations and aim for parity. However, several state-owned enterprises have more women than men on their board of directors, which would run counter to the policy of representing both sexes.
Thus, at Hydro-Québec, 16 women sit on the board of directors compared to 11 men. The same goes for that of the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), with 14 women for 10 men. In these state-owned companies, male directors therefore appear to be under-represented.
That said, these figures do not reflect the overall situation of directors of state corporations. According to the most recent data from the Report on the parity between women and men on the boards of directors of state-owned enterprises, 8 out of 47 boards of directors exceeded the limit of 60% of women in December 2020. That’s it. why the government wants to correct the situation. When the new law is adopted, state-owned companies will have two years for female directors to form between 40% and 60% of the board of directors. One way, in short, to strive for parity, in the eyes of the responsible minister.
At the end of the day, wouldn’t the bill facilitate better representation of women? This should be qualified: mentalities in this type of organization change only slowly and excluding women from these hard-won decision-making places seems a little absurd. Often, moreover, their arrival brings a breath of fresh air in these sometimes closed clubs. As a result, younger members, coming from more varied backgrounds, settled on the boards of directors, often from immigrant backgrounds or indigenous communities, traditionally less represented in state companies.
As for private companies, studies carried out in recent years by researcher Jean Bédard show that Quebec is lagging behind. Even some American states, though seen as champions of capitalism, have more female directors in their companies. In Quebec, the ratio is rather around 75% men for 25% women. Much less for start-up companies. It must be said that there is no binding legislation: everything therefore depends on the willingness of the directors to make room for their colleagues.