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Women Still Rare in the Boardroom May 13THE GAZETTE As a distinguished anthropologist, Emoke Szathmary has more than an academic interest in what helped or hindered her climb to one of corporate Canada's loftiest plateaus, the boardroom of Power Corp. and its subsidiaries. She says her gender was never an issue. "Whatever difficulties I have had," Szathmary said, "I've always attributed to the fact that I'm an immigrant with a weird name, rather than I'm female." Females, as it happens, are the focal point this year of Power Financial Corp.'s perennially handsome annual report. Billed as "a celebration of women," the report is illustrated with more than 20 Canadian artworks featuring women or done by female artists. "Mothers, pioneers, workers, educators, artists, patrons of the arts: For two centuries, the many faces of women have inspired the greatest painters, and their works are as much a tribute to women as they are a reflection of the era in which they were painted," the report says. While the artworks and the informative blurbs accompanying them speak volumes about women and their myriad roles in Canada, the report's back pages illustrate gender dynamics at the top of the corporate heap. There, the list of directors shows that Szathmary is the lone female on the 13-person board. (This week, another man was added.) Szathmary, whose full-time job is as president and vice-chancellor of the University of Manitoba, is also the lone female on the 17-person board of Power Corp., the widely held conglomerate that controls Canada's third-biggest insurer and the country's largest mutual-fund company. The single-digit status of women on Power's key boards is no surprise to those who have been painting statistical portraits of women in the corporate world. Women hold only nine per cent of corporate director positions of publicly traded FP500 companies in Canada, according to Catalyst, an international non-profit research and advisory organization that began counting female board directors in Canada seven years ago. Once crown corporations within the FP500 are included, the overall percentage of women directors jumps to 12. The rate of change, according to Catalyst, has been "glacial." But statistical details belong in the foreground of any contemporary portrait of female board directors. ackground comes first and, in Canada's case, it is coloured with controversy, tinged with indignation and laced with a fair bit of bile. n 1976, Royal Bank of Canada chairperson W. Earle McLaughlin told a public meeting that, unlike other chartered banks, there were no women on his board because its directors couldn't find one who was qualified. In short order, one was found, living and working in Montreal, corporate home to the Royal: Mitzi Dobrin, the accomplished vice-president of Steinberg's Ltd. In 1977, a study of U.S. female corporate directors found that their most divisive issue was whether they were mere tokens. One woman recounted how she refused six directorships because the corporations went to her superiors before approaching her "and asked if they could borrow their little girl," an approach that she found offensive. Szathmary's invitation to join the two Power boards in 1999 was decidedly more civilized. "They asked me," said Szathmary, who in 1996 had moved from Hamilton's McMaster University to the top spot at the University of Manitoba, where she quickly became immersed in the community, taking positions on boards of various non-profit ventures such as the St. Boniface General Hospital. Jim Burns, director emeritus of Power and a former University of Manitoba graduate, made the initial contact. A luncheon invitation with Paul Desmarais Jr., chairperson of Power Corp., and Burns followed, culminating in Szathmary's invitation to join the Power boards. Already "out most nights" because of professional commitments, Szathmary said she had to think long and hard before accepting. "I don't take these things on as a token," said Szathmary, whose stipend for each board is $60,000 - half in deferred share units - plus $1,750 for every committee or board meeting she attends. Once aboard Power, Szathmary had, for a limited time, the company of Power's first woman board director, economist Sylvia Ostry. Ostry, a Winnipeg native, had a career as an academic and public servant, which included a stint as ambassador for Canada. "She was an exemplar, a trailblazer who went very, very far in her career ... and raised two sons," said Szathmary who was helped in learning the ropes of Power's audit committee by observing Ostry. "But I'll bet you that it had a cost for her to do, like it does for most of us who have raised children and who have moved on (in careers)." That said, being female is not a career impediment. Nor should it be a barrier to corporate directorships, Szathmary said. "The issue isn't the sex. The issue is the ability and their background knowledge. I happen to think that an awful lot of women have the background knowledge and the ability. It's a matter of them coming to someone's notice," she said. aul Desmarais Jr. sees things from a slightly different angle. During Power's annual meeting in Montreal this week, Desmarais was asked about the scarcity of women on Power boards. The pool of qualified candidates will grow as women, now overwhelming business schools, "work up" through the corporate system to the board level, he said. Desmarais said that "it's a real disservice to women to distinguish between a woman and someone else." What counts are their credentials as candidates for any position, their ability to fit job requirements, he said. "The pool (now) is not gigantic - women who are CEOs of corporations and have corporate experience. There are not a lot of them out there. I can't change that; it's a demographic fact," he said. There may not be as many female CEOs of large corporations, but there are hundreds of top-quality female executives readying themselves for board seats on top companies, said Sylvia MacArthur, director of the Toronto executive recruiting firm of Madison MacArthur Inc. By the mid-1990s, corporate Canada was getting interested in breaking up the old boys' club and diversifying its boards, MacArthur said. Tactics changed in the wake of massive corporate meltdowns in the U.S. and wide allegations of fraud and ineffective corporate governance generated by the antics of companies such as Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc. In response, financial reporting laws and regulations were tightened on both sides of the border, putting increased pressure on corporate executives and board directors who, in Canada, are bound to apply skill and diligence and act "in the best interests" of the corporation and its shareholders. The best known of these tougher rules is the 2002 U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act which does have an impact on Canadian companies listed in the U.S. "As a result of Sarbanes-Oxley (and sister laws), there has been a lot of inward refocusing on the part of companies and their boards," MacArthur said. "Right now, the focus is on bringing on board members with strong financial expertise ... and secondly, legal expertise." And, high-profile companies want high-profile board members, she added. But senior women in high-profile Canadian corporations tend to be in communications, human resources and the like. Why women have leaned toward "the softer side" of business has a lot to do with proffered opportunities and paths of least resistance, MacArthur said. Her inventory of board-worthy talent now has more than 600 names; women either at the senior vice-president level of top-tier companies or at the helm of their own successful businesses. "There is an energy level and a focus that is very common," she said. MacArthur is optimistic about what the future holds for those would-be corporate directors. "I think the focus will change again, when (boards) finish getting themselves compliant and transparent (aligned with new regulations), to ensure that Enron doesn't happen again. I'm sure that they will switch back to broader issues such as diversity," she said. Indeed, it doesn't require a doctorate in forensic accounting to find comfort in the fact that, at the time of Enron's collapse, its board had the standard corporate portrait: 14 men, one woman. | Return To Media | |
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