Discrimination against women

Discrimination against women

As noted in my previous post, discrimination against women makes no sense: not from a human rights perspective, not from a civil societies perspective and not from a business perspective. 

Here are a few practical reasons why this is dumb:

• adding women to the governance mix increases the diversity of perspectives and opinions and reduced the chance of mistakes created by group think.
• having women involved in corporate governance will improve the corporation's ethical behaviour (Stedman at al 2007)
• including women on the board the board is more likely to be involved in power sharing amongst its members thereby creating a culture of inclusiveness (Bradshaw et al. 1992, Burke 1994, Angelides 1994)
• the board is more likely to conduct its conversations in a civil tone 
• by adding women to the board, it is less likely that the corporation will fail (Burton & Ryall 1995)
• by adding women to the board, the corporation's image amongst shareholders and within the community will be enhanced 
• by adding women to the board, corporations will enjoy a 53% higher return on equity, a 42% higher return on sales and a 66% higher return on capital. 

Before we launch into an indictment of boards of publicly traded companies, consider how fairly are women treated in Canadian society. Women have comprised the fastest growing sector in the labour force. Women's educational attainment has now surpassed their male contemporaries.

• Yet, women are over-represented in informal employment, part time work and unpaid work.
• Women are also paid at 75%-80% of their male comparators. And,
• they are under-represented in senior management and as directors.
• Only 15 CEO's in the Fortune 500 are women. 6.2% women senior officers had top earner spots. 
• 37% of management jobs are held by women and the majority of these are relatively junior management positions.