Authors: John M. Valley, Jessie Armour and Shae-Lynne Shaheen
Diversity disclosure results for 2024: the complete picture
Women on boards in 2024
For the full year ended December 31, 2024, 656 companies disclosed the number of women on their boards. For these organizations, we counted a total of 5,183 board seats, 1,536 of which were held by women. Based on these results, women held 29.6% of the total board seats among companies providing disclosure, continuing the slow but steady increase observed in previous years. These findings reflect an increase of 1.4 percentage points compared to full-year 2023.
For the corresponding S&P/TSX 60 companies, there were 677 total board seats, 269 of which were held by women for full-year 2024, representing approximately 39.7% of the total board seats among the 59 members of the S&P/TSX 60 providing disclosure. This year-end number remains unchanged from the 39.7% of the total board seats among the 56 members of the S&P/TSX 60 providing disclosure at mid-year 2024, and represents a gain of approximately 1.4 percentage points from full-year 2023. Our full-year results also showed that women held 37.4% of all board seats among the disclosing S&P/TSX Composite companies. This is lower than our mid-year results by approximately 0.7 percentage points, but is the second time that the number of women on boards of this group of companies has exceeded the one-third threshold at year-end.
FIGURE 1
2024 proportion of board seats held by women
Total companies that disclosed: 656
On a company-by-company basis, based on the data reported by the 656 companies disclosing the number of women on their boards, women held an average of 2.34 board seats, while the 648 companies that disclosed the percentage of women on their boards had an average of 29.6% women directors. This represents a further steady, but meaningful, year-over-year increase: for full-year 2023 the corresponding figures were 2.22 and 26.8%, respectively.
Among the 656 companies disclosing the number of women directors on their boards, 70 (10.7%) reported having no women on the board, representing a small improvement from 11.6% for full-year 2023. A total of 139 companies (21.2%) had one woman director (representing a continued decrease from the 23.3% reported for 2023), and 447 (68.1%) reported having more than one woman on their board (another year with a notable increase, up from 65.1% in 2023). At 214 of the disclosing companies (representing about one-third of those disclosing), women held 35% or more of the board seats. This is a sharp increase from full-year 2023, when the corresponding figures were 182 companies representing 27.5% of those disclosing.
FIGURE 2
2024 proportion of women directors
Total companies that disclosed: 656
Women executive officers in 2024
For full-year 2024, 565 companies disclosed information regarding the number of women executives and 576 disclosed the percentage of women executive officers. Companies that disclosed the number of women executives reported an average of 2.04 women executives and a total of 1,153 executive officer positions held by women (compared to 1.99 women executives and a total of 1,199 executive officer positions in full-year 2023). Among those that disclosed the percentage of women executives, women held an average of 21.2% of executive officer positions, which reflects a modest increase from the 20.9% reported for full-year 2023.
Gender diversity at an executive officer level continued to show slight improvements in 2024. For the 565 companies that disclosed the number of their women executive officers in full-year 2024, 26.9% reported having no women executive officers, which reflects a decrease from 28.8% in full-year 2023. A further 154 (27.3%) reported having one woman executive officer (down marginally from 27.2% in 2023), while the number of companies reporting having more than one woman executive officer increased slightly to 45.9% from 44.1% at the end of 2023. The observed progress was supported by an increase in the percentage of companies reporting 25% to 34% women executive officers for full-year 2024 (29.2% compared to 24.5% of reporting companies in 2023), as there was a decrease in the number of companies reporting more than 35% women executive officers for full-year 2024 (17.7% compared to 19.4% of reporting companies in 2023).
As in previous years, a significant proportion of companies reported that they take gender into account when identifying and appointing executive officers, with 545 of 633 companies (or 86.1%) reporting in full-year 2024 that they did so.
FIGURE 3
2024 proportion of women executive officers*
Total companies that disclosed: 565
*Percentages may not add to 100 due to rounding.
Breakdown by industry for full-year 2024
As demonstrated in Figures 4 and 5, the industries with the highest number and percentage of women directors in 2024 were Utilities & Pipelines and Communication & Media. Utilities & Pipelines reported the highest average number of women executive officers and Communication & Media reported the highest average percentage of women executive officers. Utilities & Pipelines led the way on the number of women executive officers, with Communications & Media and Financial Services also posting strong results. Communications & Media led the way for the percentage of women executive officers, with Utilities & Pipelines and Real Estate posting similarly strong results for the reported percentage of women officers.
FIGURE 4
2024 industry breakdown of numbers and percentages of women directors
Total companies that disclosed: 656 (#) / 648 (%)
FIGURE 5
2024 industry breakdown of numbers and percentages of women executive officers
Total companies that disclosed: 565 (#) / 576 (%)
Diversity policies and targets for full-year 2024
In 2024, there was a modest increase in the number of companies disclosing that they had board diversity policies (71.8%, up from 70.1%). This is reflected in Figure 6. Of those companies, 88.6% indicated that their policy also related to the identification and nomination of women directors.
FIGURE 6
2024 board diversity policy adoption rates
Total companies that disclosed: 671
With respect to targets, there was a slight decrease in the number of companies adopting goals for women directors in full-year 2024: of the 661 companies that provided board diversity target disclosure in 2024, 43% indicated that they did have a target. This represents a decrease of 0.5 percentage points from 2023, when it was reported that 43.5% of the companies that provided board diversity target disclosure had a target. The percentage of companies disclosing that they had targets for women executive officers decreased slightly as well, with 63 of the 577 companies providing disclosure for full-year 2024 (10.9%) indicating that they had such a target. The corresponding figure in 2023 was 11.2%. These results are illustrated by Figures 7.1 and 7.2.
FIGURE 7.1
2024 target adoption rates – women directors
Total companies that disclosed: 661
FIGURE 7.2
2024 target adoption rates – women executive officers
Total companies that disclosed: 577
Diversity beyond gender: reporting by CBCA corporations for full-year 2024
CBCA companies have now provided five years of diversity disclosure under the CBCA Requirement. That requirement extended reporting on the representation of women to venture issuers and required comparable disclosure with respect to the representation of members of visible minorities, Indigenous Peoples and persons with disabilities.
With respect to women, reported results for the 334 CBCA corporations that provided disclosure were generally consistent with, but lower than, the reported results for all TSX-listed issuers. This is not surprising since, as we have noted in previous years, a significant proportion of the CBCA companies that provided disclosure are listed on the TSX but the balance are smaller issuers.
For the 334 CBCA companies providing disclosure regarding the number of women on their boards, women held approximately 26% of the board seats (an increase from 24.8% in 2023), with an average of 1.84 women per board (up from 1.74 in 2023). For the 334 companies providing disclosure on the percentage of women on their boards, the average percentage was 22.8% (up 1.1 percentage points from 2023). The corresponding figures for women executive officers were an average number of 1.64 (304 companies), representing a slight increase from 1.61 in 2023, and an average percentage of 18.5% (303 companies), representing a marginal decrease (0.1 percentage points).
With respect to other designated groups, full-year results for 2024 showed slow progress compared to the prior year for members of visible minorities and Indigenous Peoples on boards, but no progress for persons with disabilities or any designated group in executive officer positions. Across all CBCA corporations, approximately 11% of board positions were held by directors who are members of visible minorities, Indigenous Peoples or persons with disabilities. Such groups were still substantially underrepresented on Canadian boards compared to the proportion of the Canadian population such groups represent.
| Number of directors | Number of executive officers | |||||
| Designated group | 2024 | 2023 | % change | 2024 | 2023 | % change |
| Members of visible minorities | 230 | 216 | 6.5% | 238 | 239 | (0.4)% |
| Indigenous Peoples | 18 | 17 | 5.9% | 6 | 7 | (14.3)% |
| Persons with disabilities | 14 | 14 | 0% | 20 | 22 | (9.1)% |
Overall, results for full-year 2024 reflect another year of continued slow progression for women in the boardroom and a flattening in the adoption of both diversity policies and targets for women directors. While gender diversity at the executive officer level demonstrated mild improvements in full-year 2024, this was coupled with a decrease in the number of companies disclosing that they had targets for women executive officers. For visible minorities, Indigenous Peoples and persons with a disability, the fifth full year of disclosure underscores that there is further room for improvement.
