Canada: gender diversity and corporate boards

Catalyst has published a report titled 2007 Census of Women Board Directors of the FP500: Voices From the Boardroom. In the accompanying press release, the following summary is provided:

The report found that women’s representation on corporate boards in Canada remains remarkably low. Women held 13.0 percent of board seats in the FP500, up only one percentage point since 2005. In 2007, just over 40 percent of FP500 companies in Canada still had no women board directors ... Census interviewees suggested several reasons why the overall representation of women on corporate boards remains frustratingly low. They said the positions, opportunities, and networks that had been so vital to their own success are still not available or accessible to most women in corporate Canada. Interviewees stressed that reliance on informal “old boys’ networks” continues to be a significant factor in how new board directors are recruited".