How many years does it take to achieve gender parity? Nearly 100, says report

With top-level leaders significantly guiding and contributing to the overall strategic direction, decisions, development, accountability, and culture of an organization, these numbers suggest women’s voices are largely absent from those conversations, according to the report.

"This is a critical moment of reckoning for companies across North America and the world. Women's progress is already glacial at best, with parity on boards a decade away and well over a century before gender parity is achieved across the globe. But the longer organizations wait, the longer – and the more – they can suffer," says Sherri Stevens, Owner and CEO of WXN. "The GAIL Report underscores that, when women rise into leadership roles, they drive broader success for both profit and people."

Overall, the gender pay gap in Canada’s tech workforce has almost tripled since 2016, reported researchers from The Dais at the Toronto Metropolitan University.

And, even when women are included on executive leadership teams, they are underrepresented in the roles that feed into top-level leadership. For example, women make up just 18% of roles that contain the words “finance” and/or “operations,” while they account for 69% of roles with titles that include “people” and/or “talent”. 

In short, “if women aren’t represented in the roles that lead to a CEO position, then their chances of becoming a CEO are reduced.” 

Why are women in leadership so important?

This is the case even though organizations with women in positions of power experience significant benefits, according to The GAIL Report: An Actionable Guide to Advance Women in the Workplace. These include:

• Financial benefits: Companies outperform their markets on stock price when women lead as CEO or CFO, according to the report. Two years following their appointment, S&P Global companies with female CEOs saw stock price momentum rise by 20%. And companies with female CFOs reported a six percent boost in profitability and stock return growth of eight percent.
• Lower turnover: A “significant and swift” increase in the representation of women can greatly reduce the rates and costs of overall employee turnover, which can amount to tens of thousands of dollars per employee.
• Happier customers: Participation of women in leadership roles leads to more “socially responsible, safer, higher-quality customer experiences” that can increase profitability, influence investments in research and development, and better position organizations for the future.
• Better engagement: Greater gender diversity at the highest levels of an organization has been shown to contribute to better community and stakeholder engagement as well as greater overall employee relations. 

If the pace of women being promoted into management continues as it is, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce reports, Canada won’t reach gender parity until 2129.

How to solve gender disparity

The GAIL Report – based on a WXN examination of 82 articles – notes that companies can address the issue of gender disparity by doing the following: 

• Raise awareness and break down gender bias by encouraging action-oriented allyship, providing education and training on the roadblocks women encounter, and creating safe and informative spaces such as ERGs. 
• Examine policies and practices that may contribute to the barriers women face, such as the language and parameters around parental leave, and flexible work opportunities for both men and women.
• Advance multiple women in leadership roles. Women are less likely to experience discrimination when more women are present, are questioned less about their expertise, are more often addressed professionally, are less likely to be mistaken for a junior, and feel less need to prove themselves to others. 

A previous report on business efforts towards gender equality revealed that employers who pursue a "deliberate strategy" on the matter will reap positive outcomes on gender pay gaps.