Despite progress in gender diversity in leadership, there are still significant gaps. Ivey is well positioned to help address these gaps; however, in order to recruit, recognize, and reward the extraordinary leadership potential of women, greater, and more targeted financial support is required to address this disparity.

Statistics show that the number of women in corporate leadership remains low. Data collected by the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) in 2022, shows that only 24% of corporate board seats in Canada are occupied by women, while only 5% of TSX issuers had a female CEO in 2022, a number that has remained relatively stagnant since the CSA began collecting data on gender in corporate boardrooms in 2014. In Canada, women hold roughly a third of management occupations (35.6%) and senior management-level occupations (30.9%). Representation of women with intersecting identities (i.e., race, cultural background, disability, sexual orientation) is even lower. In the US, only 8.8% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women and less than 1% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women of colour. 

In order to level the playing field and increase the number of women in leadership, we need to cultivate future women leaders by preparing more female-identified students to take on these roles post-graduation. Dedicated scholarships and networks for women across all Ivey programs — especially those that provide a full-ride and/or grants for living expenses — will help not only increase women’s enrollment but will also help the School increase diversity among women-identified students.