CWC as a High Profile Champion
CWC has been championing the importance of women’s participation at the board level for more than ten years, since we started tracking board gender diversity data for the communications industry in 1999.
In January 2000, CWC officially launched its Women on Boards initiative with Senator Pamela Wallin, then Chair of CWC, as our spokesperson. Since that time, CWC has filled the vital role of advocating the business case for including more women on boards, helping our members become board-ready, from community and not-for-profit organizations to corporate boards and finally, helping companies in our industry connect to sources of highly qualified women candidates.
CWC Initiative Has Been Effective
A look at statistics tells us that that our initiative has been effective. The survey group that CWC has been tracking and advocating to has significantly outperformed the Financial Post 500. Women represent 53% more board seats in the CWC survey group than the FP500. Further, the companies in CWC’s survey group have achieved a 57% faster rate of change than the FP500 group, when compared to data from census studies done by Catalyst.
In a number of cases, CWC has directly assisted in the appointment of women to board seats as well as occasions in which we directed companies to other sources of qualified women board candidates. CWC has also met with CEOs to discuss the business case, to ask directly for action and to offer practical support to achieving progress.
CWC is Plugged in Internationally
Through the involvement of CWC President, Stephanie MacKendrick, in The International Alliance for Women and its leadership, CWC has had access to thought leadership, research and strategic input from countries around the world that are making progress on this issue, from the legislative model in Norway, to critical mass research in the US to a comprehensive, multi-stakeholder non-legislative initiative in the UK.
It Matters To Business
Research shows that Boards with women significantly out perform all-male boards in areas of key governance. A 2007 Catalyst study indicates that companies with the most women on their boards report a 53% higher return on equity than companies with the fewest women on their boards.
This is confirmed by a number of other studies in North America and Europe. We believe there is no shortage of qualified women candidates to fill significantly more board positions than they do today so the issue is one of focusing action, setting goals and using strategic resources to access a multitude of talent pools.
How The CWC Women On Boards Program Works
There are three aspects to our program. The first part focuses on training our members to develop strong governance skills and to encourage them to start early when it comes to getting governance experience through a progression of organizational types, starting with small community, charitable or not for profit organizations and ultimately leading to serving on boards of publicly traded companies when they have gained sufficient skill, business acumen and experience.
The second part is an awareness campaign within the communications industry to encourage companies in the sector to focus on gender diversity at the board level.
The third piece is to help our sponsor companies and other organizations in the sector to connect to sources of qualified women board candidates.
Our activities:
CWC undertakes annual research to track the industry's progress
CWC encourages companies to make their next appointment a woman
CWC meets with key firms within the industry to raise awareness of the importance of including women in the board nomination process
CWC refers nominations committees and CEOs to other resources to help them find qualified women candidates
CWC has developed a "recommended" list of search firms committed to finding qualified women candidates for board appointments
CWC provides training sessions on Board Governance
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