Fewer companies than ever are going without a woman’s voice at the table. The percentage of 100 top companies without any women directors dropped to 17 per cent last year from 29 per cent in 2000.
The number of women occupying senior management positions in Canada's biggest companies has barely budged in the past decade. Only 17 per cent of corporate officers and 13 per cent of directors at Canada's top 500 private and public sector companies are female. The slim showing represents an anemic gain of 2.8 per cent since 2002, when Catalyst Inc., a business women's lobbying group, first began tracking the numbers.
Beatrix Dart is a professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, and Executive Director of the school's Initiative for Women in Business. The initiative focuses on advancing women in management and working with groups like the Women Entrepreneurs of Canada to understand and remove barriers for women to business education.
Beatrix Dart took questions in a live discussion moderated by Globe and Mail business reporter Janet McFarland.
Readers using mobile devices should read the discussion by following this link.