report

2024 Diversity
Disclosure Practices


Diversity and leadership at Canadian public companies

2024 Diversity
Disclosure Practices


Diversity and leadership at Canadian public companies

Sep 26, 2024 8 MIN READ
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Authors: Andrew MacDougall, John M. Valley, Joanna Cameron, and Jessie Armour

Diversity disclosure results for 2023: the complete picture

Women on boards in 2023

For the full year ended December 31, 2023, 682 companies disclosed the number of women on their boards. For these organizations, we counted a total of approximately 5,362 board seats, 1,514 of which were held by women. Based on these results, women held 28.2% 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 2.3 percentage points compared to full-year 2022.

For the corresponding S&P/TSX 60 companies, there were 635 total board seats, 243 of which were held by women for full-year 2023, representing approximately 38.3% of the total board seats among the 55 members of the S&P/TSX 60 providing disclosure. Unlike prior years, this year-end number represents a small increase from the 38% of the total board seats among the 53 members of the S&P/TSX 60 providing disclosure at mid-year 2023, and represents a gain of approximately 2.4 percentage points from full-year 2022. Our full-year results also showed that 36.2% of all board seats among the S&P/TSX Composite companies were held by women. This is consistent with our mid-year results and is the first time that the number of women on boards of this group of companies has exceed the one-third threshold at year-end.


FIGURE 1

2023 proportion of board seats held by women

Total companies that disclosed: 682

On a company-by-company basis, based on the data reported by the 682 companies disclosing the number of women on their boards, women held an average of 2.22 board seats, while the 661 companies that disclosed the percentage of women on their boards had an average of approximately 26.8% women directors. This represents a further steady, but meaningful, increase: for full-year 2022 the corresponding figures were 2.04 and 24.6%, respectively.

Among the 682 companies disclosing the number of women directors on their boards, 79 (11.6%) reported having no women on the board, representing a small improvement from 11.9% for full-year 2022. A total of 159 companies (23.3%) had one woman director (representing a continued decrease from the 28.3% reported for 2022) and 444 (65.1%) reported having more than one woman on their board (another year with a considerable increase, up from 59.7% in 2022). At 182 of the disclosing companies (representing 27.5% of those disclosing), women held 35% or more of the board seats. This is a sharp increase from full-year 2022, when the corresponding figures were 137 companies representing 20% of those disclosing.


FIGURE 2

2023 proportion of women directors

Total companies that disclosed: 682

Women executive officers in 2023

For full-year 2023, 604 companies disclosed information regarding the number of women executives employed by them, and 614 disclosed the percentage of their executive officers that are women. Companies that disclosed the number of women executives reported an average of 1.99 women executives and a total of 1,199 executive officer positions held by women. Among those that disclosed the percentage of women executives, an average of 20.9% of executive officer positions were held by women, which reflects an increase from the 19.9% reported for full-year 2022.

The slight improvement in gender diversity at the executive officer level in 2023 resulted from a number of companies with at least one women executive officer adding another. For the 604 companies that disclosed the number of their women executive officers in full-year 2023, 28.8% reported having no women executive officers which was flat compared to full-year 2022. A further 164 (27.2%) reported having one woman executive officer (down slightly from 28.6% in 2022). However, the number of companies reporting with more than one woman executive officer increased slightly to 44.1% from 42.6% at the end of 2022. There was also an increase in the number of companies reporting more than 35% women executive officers for full-year 2023 (19.4% compared to 16.7% of reporting companies in 2022).

As in previous years, a significant proportion of companies reported that they take gender into account when identifying and appointing executive officers, with 539 of 648 companies (or 83.2%) reporting in full-year 2023 that they did so.


FIGURE 3

2023 proportion of women executive officers*

Total companies that disclosed: 604

Breakdown by industry for full-year 2023

As demonstrated in Figures 4 and 5, the industries with the highest number and percentage of women directors in 2023 were Utilities & Pipelines, Communication & Media and Financial Services. 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

2023 industry breakdown of numbers and percentages of women directors

Total companies that disclosed: 682 (#) / 658 (%)


FIGURE 5

2023 industry breakdown of numbers and percentages of women executive officers

Total companies that disclosed: 604 (#) / 614 (%)

Diversity policies and targets for full-year 2023

In 2023, there was a slight increase in the number of companies disclosing that they have board diversity policies (70.1%, up from 69.6%). Of those companies, 90.1% indicated that their policy also related to the identification and nomination of women directors.

There was also a further increase in the number of companies adopting targets for women directors in full-year Of the 671 companies that provided board diversity target disclosure in 2023, 43.5% indicated that they did have a target. This represents an increase of three percentage points from 2022. The percentage of companies disclosing that they have targets for women executive officers remained steady since 2022, with 68 of the 605 companies providing disclosure for full-year 2023 (11.2%) indicating that they had such a target.


FIGURE 6

2023 board diversity policy adoption rates

Total companies that disclosed: 685


FIGURE 7.1

2023 target adoption rates – women directors

Total companies that disclosed: 671


FIGURE 7.2

2023 target adoption rates – women executive officers

Total companies that disclosed: 605

Diversity beyond gender: reporting by CBCA corporations for full-year 2023

CBCA companies have now provided four 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 359 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 359 CBCA companies providing disclosure regarding the number of women on their boards, women held approximately 24.8% of the board seats (an increase from 22.7% in 2022), with an average of 1.74 women per board (up from 1.62 in 2022). For the 344 companies providing disclosure on the percentage of women on their boards, the average percentage was 21.7% (up 1.3 percentage points from 2022). The corresponding figures for women executive officers were an average number of 1.61 (330 companies), representing a slight increase from 1.45 in 2022, and an average percentage of 18.6% (323 companies), representing a slight increase (1.2 percentage points).

With respect to other designated groups, full-year results for 2023 showed a significant increase in the number of visible minority directors compared to the prior year and some progress for persons with disabilities, but no progress for Indigenous Peoples. Across all CBCA corporations, companies reporting whether they have visible minority directors reported that 9.8% of their directors were from visible minorities. Among companies reporting whether they have Indigenous directors, only 0.8% of their directors were Indigenous. Among companies reporting whether they have directors with a disability, only 0.7% of their directors reported having a disability. All such groups were still substantially underrepresented on Canadian boards compared to the proportion of the Canadian population such groups represent.

 Number of directorsNumber of executive officers
Designated group20232022% increase20232022% increase
Members of visible minorities21618914.3%23920715.5%
Indigenous Peoples17170%79-22.2%
Persons with disabilities14137.7%221546.7%

Overall, results for full-year 2023 reflect another year of continued slow progression for women regarding seats in the boardroom, although the adoption of both diversity policies and targets regarding women directors have both seen an overall increase. There was a slight improvement with respect to the representation of women in executive officer positions and we continued to observe an increase in the number of companies disclosing that they have targets for women executive officers. While we witnessed some significant progress for visible minorities, the fourth full year of disclosure on the representation of visible minorities, Indigenous Peoples and persons with a disability at CBCA corporations underscores that there is further room for improvement.


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