Are women in the boardroom?

Women still under-represented in Canada’s boardrooms from the National Post

- Certain industries continue to have the highest representation of women on their corporate boards, including insurance, real estate, financial services, retailers and entertainment. Gold, mining, construction, engineering and information technologies are among the industries with the lowest percentages of women directors.

- A higher percentage of board directors in the United States are women -- 13.6%, compared with their Canadian counterpoints at 12%

I’m in the process of clarifying the percentages because 1.6% is not very big a difference. It also leaves out Canada’s comparisons to Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.

The attitude towards women in the work force in Ontario is pretty bad. Almost every single job I’ve had in Ontario there was always some form of sexual harassment – either by men or women pushing female chauvinism because they want to please their boss or some company policy that doesn’t take into consideration harassment.

It has gotten better over the years but employers still have a long way to go to discourage harassment in all forms in the work place in Ontario. For example, based on a true scenario, how is it that a guy can threaten a co-worker to a fight and not get fired but a woman stands up for her rights under the Human Rights Code and does?

Right now I have three human rights complaints on the burner for investigation against:

1) Stantec Consulting Engineers of Windsor for sexual harassment, vicarious sexual harassment and discrimination for grounds under the Code
2) Manpower Temporary Services of Windsor for refusal to employ because of discrimination for grounds under the Code
3) The Engineering faculty at the University of Windsor for sexual harassment, vicarious sexual harassment and discrimination for grounds under the Code

All three, hopefully, will be investigated as systemic discrimination as opposed to separate complaints, which can be requested in a human rights complaint with the OHRC

And these are the less blatant cases I have experienced over the years.

It certainly doesn’t make an individual want to be a female employee in Ontario but if there were more women on the boards of companies that make these policies, I'm sure it would help to adopt more female friendly company policies. Ya never know, it just might find its influence on Canadian politics as well.