The Importance of Growing Women Leaders

Written by Khushnoor & Garrett

Welcome

Welcome everyone! This is the first article of a series of blog posts that will explore the experiences of women leaders from diverse backgrounds in our community. You can expect to see a weekly blog post showcasing the story of a new individual every week as they share the stories of their journeys to be where they are today. We hope their words will encourage and empower you and other women to push forward in their professional and personal lives and make a difference in today's world.

This blog aims to bring awareness and support to women leaders in the community and bring attention to BIWOC Leaders (Black, Indigenous, Women of Colour). We hope that this blog can act as a tool to inspire all women in their careers and help recruiters and those in leadership to become more familiar with these women and their stories.

The current landscape

If your curious about what Canada currently looks like in terms of women in the workplace. Take a look at some of these highlights Based on MacDougall, Valley, Jeffrey (2020) "2019 Diversity Disclosure Practices report – Women in leadership roles at TSX-listed companies."

● There are only 26 women (4.4%) CEOs in TSX-listed Canadian companies

● The women who take Chair positions in TSX companies is only 5%

● Based on the 659 companies that provided numbers on women executive officers in 2019:

○ 227 companies had no women executive officers

○ 187 had one woman executive officers

○ 245 had more than one executive officers (p. 20)

Those numbers are actually an improvement over previous years; you can see there is still a lot of work to do.

BIWOC

Breaking through in leadership roles can be difficult for many women, even more so for women of colour. Women who are part of a visible-minority and have university education are less likely to obtain a job than those that don't belong to a visible minority (Hudon, 2016, p. 16). Women are also less likely to be employed by men (Hudon, 2016, p. 30). With all that being said, If you're workplace is saturated with (one type of demographic, it is going to stagnate diversity. While there has been a trend to break this mold and diversify in recent years, there is still a lot of work to do.

The importance of recruiting BIWOC women into leadership roles is that they have a unique perspective and shared experience that only they can share with similar women. Not only do they know what it's like to be a woman in today's workforce. They know what it's like to deal with systemic barriers that work against black, indigenous women of colour, and immigrants. These women are critical in the role of transforming the professional landscape of organizations.

The benefits of gender and ethnic diversity

Creating more gender diversity in the workforce increases the organization's capability to access markets it didn't before. Diversity allows for more creative solutions to complex problems and needs because people from diverse backgrounds and experiences bring new ways of thinking to the table. Most importantly, more women in leadership will foster inclusiveness for women in the workforce, which will lead to a decrease in practices that discriminate against women, including the wage gap. Women, BIWOC women, and immigrants have so much to offer. Here are some interesting points about what you can bring to the table.

Benefits

● Diversity does not equal inclusion. Though your workforce may be diverse. More women leaders, especially those with different backgrounds, will ensure more inclusive and equal work environments.

● Gender and ethnic diversity in leadership encourage changes in business structure and policies. This promotes healthy environments where women and ethnic women feel safe and empowered.

● Women of all backgrounds will bring diverse experiences and perspectives that lead to creative solutions to business problems. More diversity means fewer barriers to innovation (Shook & Sweet, n.d.).

● A Gallup poll and other research found that More gender diversity leads to better financial outcomes than those primarily made up of one gender (Badal, 2014) (Cabrera, 2009, p. 45, as cited in Sperling, 2011, as cited in Taneja, Pryor, Oyler, 2012).

● With new perspectives comes access to new markets.

● As per the study by Hay Group, women outperform men in emotional self-awareness, empathy, emotional intelligence, inspirational leadership, and other soft skills making them essential to have in leadership positions. (Korn Ferry, 2016).

● Women leaders support women employees during their low times, which is sometimes hard for men to understand.

● GDP increases by an average of 35% if the gender gap is decreased. (Hyder, 2019).

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References

Badal, S. (2020, May 5). The Business Benefits of Gender Diversity. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236543/business-benefits-gender-diversity.aspx.

Hyder, S. (2019). The Hidden Advantage of Women in Leadership: How Closing the Gender Gap can Increase GDP. Inc. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/shama-hyder/the-hidden-advantage-of-women-in-leadership.html

Hudon, T. (2016). ​Women in Canada: A Gender-based Statistical Report​ (Seventh ed., pp. 3-38). N.p.: Statistics Canada. Retrieved from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/89-503-x/2015001/article/14315-eng.pdf?st=cG

Korn Ferry (2016, March 4). New Research shows women are better at using soft skills crucial for effective leadership and superior business performance, finds Korn Ferry. Retrieved from https://www.kornferry.com/about-us//press/new-research-shows-women-are-better-at-using-soft-skills-crucial-for-effective-leadership

MacDougall, A., Valley, J., & Jeffrey, J.(2020). 2020 Diversity Disclosure Practices report: Diversity and leadership at Canadian public companies. Osler. Retrieved from https://www.osler.com/osler/media/Osler/reports/corporate-governance/Diversity-and-Leadership-in-Corporate-Canada-2020.pdf

Shook, E., & Sweet, J. (n.d.). Equality & Innovation in the workplace. https://www.accenture.com/us-en/about/inclusion-diversity/gender-equality-innovation-research

Taneja, S., Pryor, M. G., & Oyler, J. (2012). Empowerment and gender equality: The retention and promotion of women in the workforce. Journal of Business Diversity, 12(3), 43-53.