Canadian boardroom diversity efforts 'progressing too slowly'

Boardroom diversity efforts in Canada are making negligible progress, despite increasingly prominent discussions taking place about the issue.

Carol Hansell, partner for Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg, told the Financial Post that quotas could become necessary for female directors soon, due to the fact that too little is being accomplished without intervention.

She refuted the idea of low female recruitment being a "pipeline issue", noting that female directors are progressing towards equality at a rate of only 0.5 per cent a year, meaning it would take until 2100 for parity to be achieved.

Ms Hansell believes that companies are failing to put women on their shortlists for board nominations, with many business leaders placing less value on the qualifications held by females.

"It seems to me that we hold women to a higher standard. We are looking for women who are chief executives. But not all the men on boards are CEOs," she observed.

In November 2011, a report from Corporate Knights showed that the percentage of firms with no visible minority members on their boards rose from 64 per cent in 2009 to 73 per cent in 2011.