Women

This case, prepared by the Institute of Gender and the Economy with content and research contributions from VersaFi (formerly WCM) President & CEO Camilla Sutton, is based on a design sprint jointly by both organizations in 2018 at the Rotman School of Management. This report offers an analysis as to what is hindering women from careers in capital markets.

For the last two years, LeanIn.Org and SurveyMonkey have partnered to understand better what men and women are experiencing in the workplace.

Here’s what we learned.

“Despite notable advancements in education and labour force participation over the last half century, women continue to be less represented relative to men among top income groups, accounting for one in five workers in Canada’s top 1% in 2015. This paper fills an important information gap by providing a gender-based analysis of key socio-demographic and employment characteristics of working women and men in the top 1%, based on the 2016 Census of Population.”

“According to the latest Women’s Leadership Study from KPMG, seven in ten women (69%) are open to taking small risks to further their career, but far fewer (43%) are open to taking the bigger risks associated with career advancement. These results suggest that women looking to move into leadership
positions in today’s business world may benefit by taking more risks over the course of their careers and by being more self-assertive.”

“This multiyear study published by the Alliance for Board Diversity (ABD), provides powerful metrics on the slow change of diversity in the boardroom, and may help encourage corporate boards to continue to embrace the benefits of diverse board composition. Though still a slow pace in relation to the rapidly shifting demographics in the US, the shifts point towards greater diversity in America’s board rooms.”

“The Global Gender Gap Index was first introduced by the World Economic Forum in 2006 as a framework for capturing the magnitude of gender-based disparities and tracking their progress over time. The Index benchmarks national gender gaps on economic, education, health and political criteria, and provides country rankings that allow for effective comparisons across regions and income groups.”