Andrew MacDougall
Sep 13, 2016
According to a recent article by Sunny Freeman in The Toronto Star, nearly half of TSX-listed companies still have zero women on their board of directors. Freeman bases her article in large part on the data contained in 2016 Diversity Disclosure Practices, a report about gender diversity in Canadian boardrooms researched and published by Osler. Freeman elaborates by stating that women hold an average of one board seat per Canadian company. Andrew MacDougall, a partner in Osler’s Corporate Group and corporate governance expert, co-authored the report and provides additional commentary in the article.
“I frankly expected to see more women in director positions,” Andrew says. “I think the big companies take a hold of these governance issues and they do it earlier … partly because the spotlight’s on them and partly because they look ahead to these types of issues.
“With the smaller companies,” he continues, “I think it’s a matter of time. They’re not moving quite as fast as we would like in terms of changes.”
For more information about gender diversity in corporate Canada, read Sunny Freeman’s full article “Almost half of TSX companies have zero female directors” in the September 13, 2016 edition of The Toronto Star or download Osler’s 2016 Diversity Disclosure Practices report.