Women in the Boardroom Having

Women in the Boardroom

Having women in the Canadian boardroom has been an issue for a long time because the boardroom has been known as a man's place. For example, women are disadvantaged by gender stereo typing and hence will not get an opportunity for career advancement into more senior leadership role. With that, there needs to be a comprise so that women can be treated fairly in the business world. From there, mandating the quota will force the organizations to consider women for senior leadership role which would help them to get to the board room in future. This will create cultural change, which has to occur so that businesses can accommodate diversity. Businesses are in the 21st century. The 21st century is open minded to different aspects of life. If people see that the Board of Directors (BOD) of a company consist of all men, they may take their investments and sales elsewhere because it would appear the BOD is close mined and is not up for change. Along with that, some industries such as cosmetic is targeting women and it make sense to recruited female director that can understand the market better (McMull). Therefore, Canada should implement programs such as mentorship to prepare the working women for servicing as a BOD.

Women tend to be more forward looking because of their role as mothers, they naturally bring perspective of future generations to the table. This is true because women are empathic to people and the society that surrounds them. By being empathic, women gain insight into people's psyche, which can help businesses to appeal to future generations. Plus, women want to build and maintain long lasting relationships, which can be very helpful on the board of directors when coming up with new ideas to appeal to consumers. They would give insight into how to make relationships last with consumers.

"Most women are relationship-oriented... And they don't just build relationships at work or on Facebook, they build relationships with you -- your company, your customer service representatives, even your website (Marketing to Women).

As women can help build long relationships with consumers, gender diversity changes the mentality of the board room. It is less likely to group think if diversify the board members. It is good to think, however groupthink is the tendency of group members to conform to the consensus viewpoint in group decision making. A larger group can create performance anxiety. For larger teams, less personal responsibility possible (diffusion of responsibility) would take place if too much of group think was in the boardroom. By having mixed genders in the boardroom can help group think to not be an issue. Thus, women have skills that can bring new ideas and fresh prospective to break up the adverse effects of group thinking, which can cost companies consumers.

"Whatever their gender, directors first and foremost must be individuals who possess the key skills required by a board, including integrity, sound judgment, financial knowledge and strategic thinking. But boards must also understand their customers, and Strandberg notes that "women represent a significant part of the consumer market. They have a lot of economic power in the marketplace" (Perkins).

However, having women on the board of directors does not bring a sustained improvement within the board room. Its argument of equality: everyone should be equally does not meet the BOD recruitment process. BOD should be elected based on their competencies that can actually provide value to their shareholders and not based on what a gender can bring to the table. Furthermore, the evironment is rapidly changing. The demand for skill set rapidly changes and the board will need to be elected based on their expertise to fit the business need. Plus, diverse thinking comes from diverse experience not gender. Canada female board member is 12.5% which is in the middle range of studied companies by Deloitte. This means that the Canadian women do not experience stereo typing as much as other countries such as Italy and Germany with much lower rate.