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A portrait of women in the boardroom pre-pandemic

March 9, 2022

Just under half of Canadians working today are women. However, despite decades of gains in the workplace, less than one-fifth of those gathered around a table at a board of directors meeting at a large corporation in 2018 were women directors (18.3%) or officers (17.1%).

Women accounted for over 5,000 of the 28,000 directors or officers in a boardroom in Canada in 2018. Women executives (6.2%) were more than two times less likely than men (16.1%) to be in top decision-making roles, such as president of a corporation.

Although women remain underrepresented in the boardroom of Canada’s largest corporations, some progress was observed among publicly traded corporations and corporations operating in the utilities sector from 2016 to 2018, where women accounted for about one-fourth of members on boards of directors. Nationally, women directors were more likely than men directors to have completed a bachelor’s degree.

Meanwhile, several initiatives have been implemented that may see more women coming on board in the years ahead. A recent survey, conducted in 2022, also shows that women account for half of all middle and junior managers of businesses across Canada.

Source: Statistics Canada
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