Which sector has the highest female representation in leadership?
Women continue to be under-represented in senior corporate leadership in Canada, with just under one-quarter of board seats and slightly more than one-quarter of officer roles held by women in 2023, according to new data from Statistics Canada (StatCan).
In a report released Wednesday, the government agency said women occupied just under one-quarter (23.2 per cent) of seats on boards of directors in 2023, up 0.5 percentage points from 22.7 per cent in 2022.
Despite the modest increase, just over half of boards (50.3 per cent) did not include any women directors in 2023, StatCan reported. Another 25.8 per cent of boards had one woman director, while boards with two or more women directors accounted for 23.9 per cent of the total.
A report released in 2022 stated that the share of women in leadership positions in Canada is slowly rising, despite challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sector breakdown
Educational services led all industries in female representation on boards. In that sector, women held 35.3 per cent of board seats in 2023, an increase of 4.9 percentage points from 2022, according to StatCan. The utilities industry recorded the second-highest share of women directors at 34.1 per cent, followed by finance and insurance, where women represented 28.2 per cent of board members.
At the other end of the spectrum, agriculture had the weakest representation, with women occupying 8.8 per cent of board seats.
The share of women on boards also varied by type of corporation. As in previous years, women were most represented on the boards of government business enterprises, where they accounted for 33.7 per cent of director positions in 2023. Publicly traded corporations followed with 32.9 per cent of director positions held by women, while private enterprises lagged, with women occupying 21.8 per cent of board seats.
Private enterprises heavily influence the overall picture. StatCan noted that private firms “tend to drive the overall share of women directors across corporation types, as their board seats made up almost 85 per cent of the dataset on directors in 2023.”
Most publicly traded corporations had at least one woman at the board table. In 2023, 87.6 per cent of publicly traded boards included at least one woman director, compared with 81.3 per cent of government business enterprise boards and 47.1 per cent of private enterprise boards.
A previous study found that women are avoiding high-paying roles.
Women officers: modest gains and persistent gaps
Representation of women in officer positions also continued to grow at a steady pace. Across corporations conducting business in Canada, women made up 26.6 per cent of officers in 2023, StatCan said, up from 25.7 per cent in 2022. The 0.9 percentage point gain in women officers was larger than the one recorded for women directors, indicating slightly faster progress in executive ranks below the board.
However, women were less likely to be found in the most senior officer roles. In 2023, women held 21.7 per cent of top officer positions and 32.8 per cent of other officer positions, the report showed. Among top officer roles, women were more likely to be executive vice-presidents than chief executives. Women accounted for 29.7 per cent of executive vice-presidents but just 16.0 per cent of chief executive positions, a category that includes:
- Presidents
- chief executive officers
- chief financial officers
- chief operating officers
Among “other” officer positions, women were most represented in auditor roles, where they held 53.9 per cent of positions, and least represented among treasurers, at 28.4 per cent.
Officer representation by industry and corporation type
By industry, educational services again posted the highest female representation among officers, mirroring its board performance. The sector had the highest proportion of women officers in 2023 (36.4 per cent), StatCan said. Utilities ranked second with 34.9 per cent women officers, “more than three times the level of the agriculture industry (11.5 per cent), in which women officers were the least represented.”
Differences by corporate type were also evident among officers. Women were most represented in officer positions within government business enterprises, where they accounted for 38.5 per cent of officers in 2023. This was “notably higher” than the shares seen in publicly traded corporations (28.1 per cent) and private enterprises (26.5 per cent).
Within government business enterprises, women’s strong presence in officer roles was driven largely by “other” officer positions. In this group, 44.6 per cent of their other officers were women, compared with 29.7 per cent of their top officers, StatCan said.
If the pace of women being promoted into management continues as it is, the Chamber reported, Canada won’t reach gender parity until 2129, according to a previous report.
