Happy 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day (IWD) 2010. In Canada IWD is celebrated on March 8, but expands through the week of March 7 to March 13. This year’s theme is, Strong Women. Strong Canada. Strong World.
The Status of Women website states: This theme reflects the government’s action to encourage more women and girls to participate in leadership roles, thereby helping them thrive, reach their full potential, fulfill their dreams and build a more prosperous Canada.
So, how are we doing in Canada? Are women participating in leadership roles and reaching their full potential? According to the latest Canadian Census, released by Catalyst Canada, the answer would be NO.
The report states the following:
In 2009, women held 14.0 percent of board seats at Financial Post 500 companies, an increase of one percentage point since 2007. In both 2007 and 2009, more than 40 percent of companies had no women directors. Similar to 2007, women held just 3.2 percent of board chair seats in 2009. Finally, while women's representation on private company boards increased 4 percentage points from 2007, crown companies continue to have the highest representation of women on their boards compared to other types of companies.
As you can see this is not a significant increase to make any real difference in today’s business world.
So what can you do to help? Well, make sure you take the time today to reflect on women’s advancement in Canada over the past 100 years. Make sure you celebrate the contributions women are making in today’s business world and help them get the recognition they deserve. Take some ownership in how “you” can help increase the numbers in this report for the coming year.
We can all do something, maybe if we can commit to doing a little, we will see that significant increase in women in leadership roles and women will be able to reach their full potential, fulfill their dreams and build a more prosperous Canada, and help the government achieve their stated action.
Other stories of interest on this topic:
http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=2634810
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/774098--women-directors-still-few-far-between
Add a comment