Get All the Details on What it Means to be Parity Certified

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Empowering all Women and

Closing the Gender Gap

Women in Governance’s Parity Certification starts with a thorough diagnostic of an organization’s position on the gender parity spectrum as it pertains to the strategies (culture and commitments)
and actions (communications, policy and programs) and the results they yield.
Following this assessment, the customized report outlines best practices and the key drivers
to enable an organization to build a roadmap to gender parity and achieve greater inclusion.

The Parity Certification is

Contributing to Change by:

  • 1

    Influencing organizations to implement programs and practices that foster career advancement of women from all backgrounds to senior leadership positions.

  • 2

    Enabling organizations to attract the best and brightest talent.

  • 3

    Highlighting a more inclusive company culture which correlates with higher employee engagement.

  • 4

    Supporting enhanced innovation and ability to respond to market fluctuations.

  • 5

    Differentiating organizations such that they attract investors, customers and other stakeholders.

  • 6

    Engaging men as stakeholders in gender parity and
    recognizing their role as equal beneficiaries in the advancement of workplace inclusion.

A Roadmap to the

Certification Process

The Parity Certification provides participants organizations with a robust and confidential evaluation
on where they stand in regard to gender parity while accounting for the multiple impacts of diversity
in women’s career advancement (intersectionality).

1

Assessment

Assessment

  • Pre-Qualification
  • Parity Certification Questionnaire

An evaluation result in a certification level, validated by our independent certification partners. A customized report identifies your strengths and provides you with best practices for those drivers that demonstrate opportunities for improvement.

2

Certification

Certification

  • Level of Certification
  • Customized Report

Our Parity Forums offer attending organizations an exhaustive analysis of the most significant trends within their cohort, insights to global diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) trends facilitated by our partners and the opportunity to exchange best practices with their peers.

3

Gender parity community

Gender parity community

  • Parity Forums
  • Career advancement events for all women

Optional, additional fees | Certified organizations are nationally honoured at our Annual Recognition Galas in Toronto and in Montreal, where leaders from the corporate and political world gather to recognize the efforts taken by certified organizations.

4

Recognition & Branding

Recognition & Branding

  • Annual Recognition Galas
  • Leveraging Certification

Optional, additional fees | Women in Governance Enablement Services are designed to help organizations identify gaps in order to achieve a more inclusive workplace and build concrete actions that can then be implemented in the short to medium term. These will serve as the building blocks to sustaining inclusive workplaces over time.

5

Enablement Services

Enablement Services

  • Roadmap to parity

Due to the tenuous and dynamic nature of gender parity, re-certification efforts are crucial to ensure continued progress and sustained results.

6

Recertification

Recertification

  • Reach and sustain parity
  • Continue to strive towards enhanced inclusion

Our 4 Certification Levels

Bronze
Silver
Gold
Platinum

Organizations that participate in the Parity Certification will gain insights on what programs and policies they should have in place within their organization to implement best practices in terms of recruitment, training, promotions, compensation, and talent management. Depending on where they sit on the gender parity spectrum, these organizations can qualify for Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum certification level.

The evaluation comprises over 75 quantitative and qualitative criteria taking into account the multiple impacts of diversity in women’s career advancement (intersectionality). Certified organizations will be recognized for their efforts and can progressively move to higher levels of certification while those that have not qualified will obtain recommendations that support their efforts to qualify for certification in the future.

We strongly encourage organizations that have not yet implemented the mechanisms to enable women form all backgrounds to progress and don’t feel they could be certified to engage in the certification process nonetheless. The Parity Certification is a means to receive the experts support required to move the needle and achieve, enhance, and sustain results.

Pre-Qualify Now

What the Community is Saying

François Legault

Prime Minister,
Quebec

I would like to thank the team at Women in Governance for their hard work in support of equality! Thank you for helping us, as a society, to advance. We must place equality at the heart of every workplace, to ensure that all women in Québec can contribute to our economy in proportion to their talents.

Suzanne Bergeron

President,
Sodexo Canada Limited

For Sodexo, Women in Governance’s Parity certification is important because it is the validation, the seal of approval by the industry that parity is not just a question of numbers, but really concrete actions to develop our female talent and to bring these women into governance roles in the corporate environment; we must mobilize, we must stop talking about it and take action.

Isabelle Charest

Minister for Education and Minister Responsible for the Status of Women,
Government of Quebec

Women in Governance’s Parity Certification rings a bell announcing that in 2019, we’ve reached that point. We need women in leadership positions, in decision-making positions, for society to move forward. For me, it’s a great way to highlight those who have already progressed in that way, but also to put some pressure on those who haven’t!

Charles Brindamour

Chief Executive Officer,
Intact Financial Corporation

I think that if we want to build a strong Canada with strong businesses, we must ensure that all of Canada’s talent is put to work for the country through businesses. It’s an important strategy for us to win in business, to become one of the best insurers in the world, and in that context, we’ve worked hard for over a decade to now have close to 55% of our leaders who are women, 40% of the board, close to 40% of the executives and over 50% of our succession group, so we believe it’s really important and we want to encourage other Canadian companies to do the same thing to have a stronger country.

Martine Lapointe

Managing Director and Chief Product Officer,
Accenture

For Accenture, the Certification we have received from Women in Governance is extremely important. First of all, we believe that commitment to diversity and inclusion starts at the top. We are committed to achieving results and have a goal of achieving parity—this means 50% of women globally by 2025. We are putting concrete and measurable goals in place to get there.

Guy Cormier

President and Chief Executive Officer,
Desjardins Group

Essentially, the message that Parity Certification sends to the corporate world is a very simple thing: the assurance that our organization will simply perform better.

Jacques Goulet

President,
Sun Life Financial Canada

An organization that does not harness the intelligence, the experience, the insight and the wisdom of women, is an organization, frankly, that is not performing to its full potential.

Catherine Tait

President and CEO,
CBC/Radio-Canada

This Parity Certification reflects the success of our efforts while encouraging us to do more. We want to reflect the full range of Canadian perspectives within our organization as well as in our content, and this commitment to parity will allow us to better reflect the face of Canada and will ensure our continued relevance to Canadians.

Kathleen Taylor

Chair of the Board,
Royal Bank of Canada

Women in Governance makes a huge contribution to the corporate world. Women and men are the perfect complement to one another. We can be so much more successful in everything we do when we do it together.

Justin Trudeau

Prime Minister,
Canada

Congratulations to Parity-certified organizations for everything you do to support women’s leadership. Each and every one of you brings important contributions to making gender equality a reality, not only in the business world, but also in our entire society.

Looking back at the best moments of our

Annual Recognition Galas

Our Partners

Contact Us

certification@womeningovernance.org
514-667-0334 1-844-4-PARITY