1998 CWDI Report: Women Board Directors of Canada’s Publicly-Listed Companies
The 1998 CWDI Report: Women Board Directors of Canada’s Publicly-Listed Companies focuses on top 200 industrial and service companies based in Canada. The study found that women held 7.4% of all board seats.
Key Findings
- Over half of the top Canadian industrial (55%) and financial companies (54%) have women on their boards. However, the number of women directors serving on these companies’ boards is relatively small: out of 1,915 directors in the top 200 industrial and service companies, only 142 or 7.4% are women. The numbers are comparatively better among financial institutions, where 1.3% of the total number of board directors are women, or 129 out of a total 1,053. For both business areas, the list of companies without female board representation remains considerable. These companies provide a wide range of products and services, including those that rely primarily on women consumers.
- Among the top 200 industrial and service companies, General Motors of Canada has the largest number of women board directors at 4 out of 9 total directors. Two financial institutions, however, beat these numbers with two companies having 6 women directors each: Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (6 out of 32) and Credit Union Central of British Columbia (6 out of 15).
- If one were to look at the companies with the highest percentage of women board directors, Xerox Canada Inc. wins out among industrial and service companies with 66.7% representation of women at 2 female board directors out of 3. General Motors of Canada comes second with 44.4% (4 out of 10) of its board being women. Among the top 100 financial institutions, Vancouver City Savings Credit Union has the highest percentage of female board representation: 50% since five of its ten-member board of directors are women.
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