In our April 2023 CharityVillage Connects podcast episode, we explored how Canadian nonprofit sector leaders are increasingly finding themselves under the microscope. In fact, the sector itself is grappling with issues related to accountability, transparency, and a lack of diversity, particularly at the upper levels of organization management.
For this episode, we interviewed Paulette Senior, CEO and President of the Canadian Women’s Foundation. In our interview, Paulette discussed her experiences in the early part of her career, the problems with a “women-majority but not women-led” sector, and the need to create healthy pipelines to move women into leadership opportunities.
To start, Paulette discussed her early career in the sector and how the leadership and service model did not often reflect her or the communities the organizations were serving.
Paulette Senior: When I first started in this sector back in the late eighties, it was really a sector that I loved and cherished and relished in. It was inspiring to be doing the work that my heart desired. But I also saw that, for the most part, the leadership did not reflect me. It didn’t reflect the people we were serving. And it was really, I would say, an approach to working within a charitable model, a sort of an old school model that didn’t really look at the reflection of those who were being served and saw the need to make sure that those who were being served were also the ones who were doing the serving, so to speak.
And not just at the frontline level, but also at the leadership level. So clearly, there are ways that we, or strategies that we need to put in place to address, the leadership in the sector to ensure that there are more effective pathways for women to be able to lead. And there are a number of strategies that I’ve seen that are important in terms of creating the kind of structural changes that need to happen to diversify, including making strategic commitments and investment in leadership transformation.
Paulette also discussed the widespread issue of Canada’s nonprofit sector being “women-majority but not women-led” and what that has meant for those working in the sector.
Paulette Senior: There’s been a tidal shift away from advocacy towards modern-day provision of public services in lieu of government services. So that’s really where things have shifted over the years. And what this gives us is a good grounding on the reality of the highest levels of nonprofit leadership, as it’s historically been white male-led, monocultural, and straight, and other kinds of those characteristics. Women today will now dominate the nonprofit labour force in terms of the specific raw numbers that we see, but the nonprofit labour force is underpaid. And we know this from the statistics that we’ve seen. So, it’s underpaid. And women earn less than men at all management levels within the sector. And women’s representation drops as seniority levels rise. So that is the trend that we have now. The 2019 Canadian Nonprofit Sector Salary Benefit study shows that women make up 85% of nonprofit support staff, but holds 70% of senior executive positions.
So, where women are in leadership positions, they’re often primarily white women. There are significant gaps in terms of board and executive leadership, especially for racialized and Black and Indigenous women and other folks such as women with disabilities, 2SLGBTQIA+ folks, and in gender justice nonprofit organizations. Our closest partners at the foundation, that we work with, there is a more, what I would call, sort of robust leadership, diversity across gender, race, and identity lines. And we also see that there’s a high commitment to intersectional feminist approaches. So, you know, a real, sort of powerful building block for inclusion exists within the sector that we work in. But there are gaps that we still have to close here too, such as leadership gaps for Black and racialized women and women with disabilities, for example. So that’s really what we’re seeing in terms of the history, but also where we’ve come since then.
Paulette went on to highlight what needs to be done to create healthy pipelines to move women, especially Black, Indigenous, and racialized women, into leadership positions where they can thrive.
And then there’s also the kind of recruiting executives and board members, who themselves, I think, need to carry equity-building skillsets and track records to do a great job in terms of diversifying representation across the organization, including at the board nomination level in committees. And I would also add tying executive and board performance measures to make sure that the success is being measured. So, it’s something, for example, that we have included in our strategic plan as an organization. When we look at the gaps that we have, and this is something I see is needed across the sector, and asking and responding to what diverse people in other parts of the organization need for retention, especially now where retention is a significant issue because of the large gaps that we’re seeing across multi-sectors, it’s no different for our sector.
And, making sure that it’s not just about retaining people where they’re at, but providing opportunities for them to move into leadership levels, whatever measure, whatever strategies that is, that could be mentorship or sponsorship programs, compensation to make sure that it’s, you know, folks are living, are earning livable and healthy wages, as well as the flexibility that folks require because of their caregiving responsibilities. And making sure that our environments are fostering a sense of safety, to reduce discriminatory, possible discriminatory practices or sexual and gender-based harassment that exists in the workplace. Because if we don’t do this, then we’re actually contributing to creating pipelines that are not working, and in fact, become leaky talent pipelines. And we know that this is preventable in terms of what we need to do.
Want to hear more from Paulette? Listen to her full interview in the video below.
Listen to Paulette and other subject matter experts discuss the current state of trust in nonprofit leadership in our new CharityVillage Connects podcast episode. Click here or listen to the podcast player below.
