Women are gaining more presence in the boardrooms than in the C-suites of listed Canadian real estate entities. New analysis from the credit rating agency, Morningstar DBRS, charts the changing gender split of senior leadership roles since 2010 at 11 public companies, and finds that women’s share of board of director positions grew from 6 per cent in 2010 to 36 per cent in 2022.
Demographic shifts were less pronounced at the top executive level. Looking specifically at the duo of chief executive officer (CEO) and chief financial officer (CFO), women filled 5 per cent of those positions in 2010 and 18 per cent in 2022, with the latter all clustered at CFO.
Commentary from Brenda Lum, managing director of Morningstar DBRS’ North American corporate real estate ratings, highlights women’s relative higher numbers on real estate boards versus an average of 26 per cent across all TSX-listed companies. Among the 11 real estate players, Artis Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) and Allied Properties REIT, had the highest share of female board members in 2022, at 57 per cent and 50 per cent respectively. In both cases, that’s a shift away from all-male boards 12 years earlier.
Women also increasingly carry out committee responsibilities on the real estate entities’ boards. Across the 11 entities, women filled 36 per cent of committee positions in 2022 compared to 8 per cent in 2010. Women comprised at least 50 per cent of board committees at Artis, RioCan and Allied Properties REITs, while Morguard Corporation was alone in having no women in committee roles. (That’s perhaps reflective of a smaller field of candidates to choose from since Morguard had the lowest quotient of women on its board in 2022 — at 11 per cent — among the 11 entities.)
“The disappointment lies in the lack of women holding leadership roles, defined as CEO and chair of the board positions. No woman held any of these positions in the 2010, 2020 or 2022 periods,” Lum observes.
Turning to the C-suite, women’s representation in the CEO and CFO positions actually slipped in 2022 from 20 per cent two years earlier. In 2010, First Capital REIT was alone in the group for its female CFO, while women held the CFO position at four companies — Allied Properties, Chartwell Retirement Residences, Crombie and Granite — in 2022.
The analysis also examines women’s status as of February 2024 in a slightly larger sample of real estate companies, broadened to include three more that were listed on the TSX after 2010. Women now fill 21 per cent of top executive roles across these 14 entities, primarily as CFOs, but with one CEO (Allied Properties REIT’s Cecilia Williams). As of last month, women continue to be shut out of board chair positions.
Across the entire TSX currently, women chair 7.3 per cent of boards and are CEO of 5.3 per cent of listed companies. Although trends suggest women are steadily gaining parity in total board membership, Lum concludes that the “comply or explain” approach, leveraging mandatory disclosure to open leadership up to more women and under-represented groups, does not appear to have been a catalyst for women’s advancement to CEO or board chair.
“Perhaps gender parity at the board of director level will be an instigator of change for representation of women in these key leadership positions,” she surmises.
The 11 real estate companies in the analysis include: Allied Properties REIT; Artis REIT; Chartwell Retirement Residences; Crombie REIT; First Capital REIT; Granite REIT; H&R REIT; Morguard Corporation; Primaris REIT; RioCan REIT; and SmartCentres REIT.
