Representation of women on boards of directors and in officer positions, 2023

Data sources and methodology

The Corporations Returns Act (CRA) program collects financial and ownership data on corporations conducting business in Canada for public, private and government businesses. Corporations are included in the sample if their gross revenues for a fiscal period exceed $200 million, their assets exceed $600 million or their long-term debt or equity owing to non-residents exceeds a book value of $1 million.

However, while these data are used to understand the domestic and foreign residence of corporate board members and officers, they cannot provide information on the gender profile of these individuals.

To identify the gender of these corporate board members and officers, a two-step process was undertaken.

First, the data were integrated, where possible, with gender data from the Derived Record Depository—a national dynamic relational database containing only the basic personal identifiers of Canadians and built by integrating information from administrative data files available at Statistics Canada, including the T1 Personal Master file, for the purpose of facilitating the integration of data from other files.

Then, for the records that could not be integrated, probabilistic imputation was employed using information available about the corporate board members and officers.

The data obtained through the CRA program are used to evaluate the extent of foreign control in the Canadian economy and are summarized in an annual report to Parliament. To release information from the CRA program, Statistics Canada must receive approval from Parliament.

Definitions

Board of directors: The governing body of a corporation.

Executives: Individuals who occupy a leadership and strategic decision-making role within an enterprise and who contribute as either a board director or an officer.

Directors: Individuals responsible for supervising the activities of a corporation and for making decisions for those corporations.

Officers: Individuals responsible for leading the day-to-day operations of a corporation.

Table

The data table used for this analysis is available today (Table 33-10-0501-01 – Representation of women and men on boards of directors and in officer positions, by firm attributes).

Visualization tool

The Representation of women on boards of directors and in officer positions: Visualization tool is a comprehensive analytical tool that presents annual changes to the representation of women and men on boards of directors in Canada.

Revision policy

Statistical revisions are carried out annually to incorporate the most current information available. Generally, these revisions are limited to the previous reference year.

Periodically, comprehensive revisions could be conducted, which would generally entail revisions beyond the scope of the standard revision window. These provide an opportunity to enhance estimation methods and incorporate improved data sources and concepts.

Sources of revisions

Data for reference years 2016 to 2020 were revised, and new data for 2021 to 2023 were produced using an updated methodology. The data source remains unchanged and continues to rely on information collected under the CRA. No imputation or forward/backward linking of individuals across years is performed; each reference year reflects only records meeting CRA coverage requirements for that year.

The unit of analysis was refined to the enterprise-individual level to reduce overrepresentation of individuals within corporate groups. Under the previous structure, individuals within large corporate ownership groups could be counted multiple times. Redefining the analytical unit at the enterprise–individual level ensures that each individual–enterprise pairing is treated as a distinct observation, thereby preventing duplication and ensuring proportional representation.

Director and officer classifications were corrected, so that the highest-ranking officer position is retained when multiple positions are reported, and North American Industry Classification System and position variables were standardized. Industry groupings were expanded, and firm size is now classified by employment: small (fewer than 100 employees), medium (100 to 499 employees), and large (500 employees or more).

Impact of the revisions

Because of the methodological changes, data from the 2016 reference year onward are not directly comparable with previously released estimates. The removal of forward/backward linking and the refined unit of analysis definition affect the distribution of individuals across categories.

Absolute counts are no longer published, as the dataset reflects annual CRA coverage rather than a complete population. The revised release focuses on percentage distributions, which changed only slightly overall as a result of the updates.

Requirement to disclose

Under the Canada Business Corporations Act, publicly traded corporations are required to disclose information on the number of women on their boards, and their diversity policies, targets and statistics in relation to the four employment equity groups for boards of directors and executive officer positions. Essentially, while it will not be mandatory for public corporations to adopt diversity policies or quotas, they will be required to disclose whether they did so or not and—if not—to explain why.