Most publicly traded companies in Canada have to disclose what they’re doing—or not doing—to increase women’s representation on their boards of directors. Do these disclosure requirements increase women’s representation on boards? What other factors matter? Although equity, diversity, and inclusion policies have become more common over the last few decades, there’s still a lot we don’t know about how to improve diversity in senior leadership.

This research will help us figure that out.

This webpage introduces The Conference Board of Canada’s research into Canada’s disclosure-based approach to increasing women’s representation. In 2014, Status of Women Canada set the nation a goal of 30 per cent women on boards by 2019. While we fell short of that target, there are lessons to be learned in the striving for it.