WCT Report Provides Guidance for Smart Employers to Attract and Promote Women

Toronto, January 30^th, 2018: Women in Communications and Technology (WCT) has released the report from a national consultation it conducted across Canada that provides insights about why Canadian digital industries continue to struggle to attract and retain women in their workforces

Currently, women make up only 27 per cent of the workforce in the Canadian communications and technology industries and women leave these industries at an alarming rate. The report, Closing the Gender Gap:  A Blueprint for Women’s Leadership in the Digital Economy, says that employers can do a better job of recruiting and retaining women by making changes in their companies such as: gender-blind recruitment and promotion practices, setting targets for women's engagement, tying mentorship outcomes to performance compensation, to name a few.

One overarching key factor identified as necessary for improving gender diversity is ensuring that corporate policy and culture fully align. 

To celebrate the release of the report today, WCT is presenting an executive panel of leaders in the technology, entertainment and fintech industries to discuss their own corporate cultures and what is working, and not working when it comes to the recruitment and advancement of women. The panel features Barbara Williams, COO of Corus Entertainment, Paul Vallée, President and CEO of Pythian, and Jules Andrew, SVP at RBC and is moderated by Carolyn Jarvis, Chief Investigative Reporter with Global News.

Closing the Gender Gap provides a synthesis of the suggestions of the 250 women and men who participated in the consultation roundtables in 7 cities across Canada.  It is also designed to serve as a primer for employers on how to implement some of the practices necessary to create more inclusive workplaces.

“If we are going to build the strong digital economy that Canadians aspire to, we must do a better job of engaging and tapping into the creative capital of women,” Joanne Stanley, executive director of WCT said.  “The roundtable table consultation, which was made possible by Status of Women Canada enabled us to talk to employers and employees in all regions across Canada about what works best to build gender diverse companies.”

The report provides insight into future tools and services that WCT can use to help employers attract and employ women, and to leverage their talents more effectively. 

The report also indicates a clear pathway for necessary initiatives for WCT to work with women and their employers on what works and what doesn’t work in advancing women in digital industries.  "We are now working on distilling this knowledge into a set of useful services and tools that can help employers attract and employ more women and use their talents more effectively.”

"It’s really time that we stopped talking and act to make the changes necessary to build a fully diverse digital economy,” Ms. Stanley said.

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To learn more about Closing the Gender Gap: A Blueprint for Women's Leadership and how the strategies identified int eh report can be used as tools to improve your organizations ability to attract, retain and promote women, contact WCT.