EDMONTON – There is a movement in Alberta to increase the number of women on boards in the province.
Research shows 15 per cent of directors of Financial Post 500 companies are women and that number drops to 10 per cent when Crown corporations aren’t included.
“There is a need to promote the idea of women applying and being appointed to corporate boards,” Women’s Legal Forum Chair Teresa Haykowsky said.
The Women’s Legal Forum was created three-and-a-half years ago to promote and support women in the legal profession.
The forum is collecting resumes from women in a number of professions such as law, science and medicine, which will then be sent to the Alberta government’s Status of Women ministry for potential opportunities as board members.
“We hope to kickstart their initiative,” lawyer Jeananne K. Kirwin said. How can they find women without having a source to draw from? So it’s creating a data base for them effectively.”
McLennan Ross Legal Counsel has created a Dropbox where women can send their resumes.
“We’re simply facilitating the reception of the resumes. We’ll transfer all the resumes to the government on May 3,” Haykowsky explained.
“We’re actually not even reviewing those resumes. It’s just to promote women to apply to corporate board positions.”
The Women’s Legal Forum hopes to have 100 resumes by May 2.
A number of benefits of having women on boards have been identified in research, including strong financial performance, getting the most qualified and talented people, and fostering creativity and innovation.