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Women on Canadian Corporate Boards: Investor Activism Effectuating Change

DBRS Morningstar published a commentary titled, “Women on Canadian Corporate Boards: Investor Activism Effectuating Change.” The commentary focuses on women’s representation on Canadian corporate boards.

Some of the highlights of the commentary include:
-- There has been some proportional growth in women’s representation on corporate boards over the last year, despite Canadian law being limited to disclosure obligations.
-- However, institutional investors and advocacy groups are now going further, publicly setting their expectations for board diversity on their public portfolio companies.
-- Furthermore, legal and regulatory diversity requirements from foreign jurisdictions are putting additional pressure on larger Canadian corporations that have to operate and list outside of the country.
-- DBRS Morningstar analysis shows that women’s representation on corporate boards increased year over year for all company sizes, with large-cap companies ahead of the overall market.
-- In line with the improvement in women’s representation on board seats, women’s participation on board committees also rose in 2021.

“Gender diversity on corporate boards has been widely recognized as an important aspect of corporate governance by institutional investors,” according to Maria Khoury, Senior Vice President, Financial Institutions, “and more investors are convinced that having more gender balanced boards leads to better financial performance.”