The Prosperity Project’s Annual Report Card finds women’s participation in leadership roles in Corporate Canada has plateaued, but that stability is masking sharply different outcomes for different groups of women
CALGARY, AB (Sept. 9, 2026) – The Prosperity Project (TPP) released its 2026 Annual Report Card (ARC) on Gender Equity and Leadership today, showing that women’s overall representation in Corporate Canada’s leadership has plateaued. Women held 43.3 per cent of leadership positions in 2026, virtually unchanged from 43.4 per cent in 2025.
But that number only tells part of the story. White women’s share of women’s leadership rose six percentage points this year, from 76.7 per cent to 82.7 per cent, the largest gain of any group ARC tracks. Women of Colour’s share fell from 19.7 per cent to 14.6 per cent, the steepest decline the ARC has recorded in it its six-year history.
The decline for Women of Colour was sharpest in the boardroom, where their representation among Corporate Directors fell from 17.4 per cent to 4.0 per cent, and at the executive table, where it fell from 21.7 per cent to 11.2 per cent. Black women’s representation also declined overall, from 1.9 per cent to 1.6 per cent, even as their presence on boards specifically grew, from 2.5 per cent to 4.5 per cent.
Indigenous women’s overall share held flat at 1.0 per cent, still the lowest of any group tracked, though their board representation reached 2.5 per cent, the strongest level since 2021. No Indigenous women were represented among Executive Officers this year.
Not every group lost ground. Women with disabilities posted the largest gain of any equity-deserving group, rising from 3.4 per cent to 4.2 per cent overall, driven by a jump among Executive Officers from 1.3 per cent to 3.5 per cent, even as their Corporate Director representation slipped from 1.0 to 0.5 per cent. Representation of 2SLGBTQIA+ women edged up slightly, from 1.8 per cent to 1.9 per cent overall, though their Corporate Director representation also fell, from 1.0 to 0.5 per cent.
Beneath these shifts in who is advancing, the leadership pipeline itself is changing shape. Women’s representation in the pipeline to senior management fell from 45.3 per cent to 44.2 per cent, one of only two leadership levels to decline this year alongside Executive Officers, which fell from 40.6 per cent to 36.4 per cent. Senior Management representation rose to 41.3 per cent from 39.1 per cent, and Corporate Director representation rose to 38.4 per cent from 37.4 per cent. The gap between women and men still widens with seniority, from eight percentage points in the pipeline to 25 percentage points at the executive level.
“We’re seeing in real time the impact of biases and systemic barriers that still haven’t been addressed beyond surface level. White women are progressing. Women of Colour, and in many cases Black and Indigenous women, are not. That’s not equitable change. That’s not progress for all,” explains Julie Savard-Shaw, executive director, The Prosperity Project.
Research has consistently linked diverse leadership teams to stronger financial performance, better decision-making and greater innovation. For organizations navigating a competitive and uncertain economy, closing these gaps isn’t only a matter of fairness, it’s a matter of business performance.
“We don’t know yet exactly why this shift happened this year, and we’re not going to speculate. What we do know is that a decline this sharp, in a single year, deserves serious attention from every organization in this country,” adds Savard-Shaw.
The report calls on organizations to look past aggregate representation and examine, with an intersectional lens, the systems shaping recruitment, advancement, retention and leadership appointments, the very systems that can make a year like this one look stable when it’s not. It points to three priorities:
- Conducting annual, benchmarked reviews of succession plans and leadership pipelines rather than relying on informal manager discretion;
- Investing in both internal and external mentorship and sponsorship, and tracking outcomes by intersectional identity, since barriers to advancement for Black, Indigenous and racialized women often emerge well before the executive level; and
- Treating equity and inclusion budgets as long-term strategic investments rather than discretionary spending that can be cut when convenient.
The full report provides detailed recommendations organizations can use to identify where women are getting left behind in the pipeline and focus action where it is most needed.
ARC 2026 draws on voluntary, self-reported workforce data from FP500 companies across nine industry sectors. It examines women’s representation across Corporate Directors, Executive Officers, Senior Management and the pipeline to senior management.
The full report, including industry benchmarking, leadership-level analysis, identity-level findings and organizational recommendations, is available at here.
About The Prosperity Project
Founded in 2020, The Prosperity Project is a national registered charity focused on identifying and eliminating the systemic barriers and biases that impede the advancement of women in the economy, limiting their and Canada’s opportunities for increased prosperity.
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