This is hardly a new revelation to senior female executives within the industry. Yet their experiences and ideas are serving to mentor and promote Canada’s next generation of women leaders. This is the value-added approach Canada needs to nurture for a global edge. A strong theme of the CIDA study was gender parity programs that Canada can develop and export to petroleum-producing nations around the world. It is the next generation of young women – and men – who will create a more diverse industry culture that respects both gender and quality of life distinctions.

“The end goal is to ensure a corporate culture that values and capitalizes on its total human resources,” concludes Sherk. “This has become an economic necessity.”

Certainly one of the last bastions of male supremacy is corporate deal-making. Given that much of the global economic mess was created by a few zealous men, perhaps, as women move into finance and related senior management fields, they will be invited to the table. So far it is not always easy to stay at the top after arriving. Brooksley Born, who was chairwoman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, warned Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers about the need to regulate derivatives. She was ignored and resigned.

“Once women are valued as associates, it opens the door to their going into areas like finance, securities law, environmental law, and newer areas like carbon finance,” says Patricia Leeson. Women become corporate secretaries and move into capital-raising for junior oil and gas companies. “Women aren’t primarily involved at the deal level yet. It’s just a matter of time. It’s still mainly men who are on the boards of directors and until that changes – and it will – the deal flow tends to be male-dominated because those are the people whose expertise you know and with whom you are comfortable.”

DuPont points to many talented women who deserve to be on corporate boards of directors and whose ability the boards need. “We do want to see some movement there, although there are a few more women,” she adds.

Stella Thompson, a principal at Governance West, is a veteran member of many corporate boards and a keen observer of gender behavior at the board level. Highly functioning boards depend on collegiality as well as professionalism and expertise. Building on comfort is the mantra for most boards and that translates into financial stability but not gender parity.

“Boards are the ultimate place for choices to be made about who you want to sit with,” Thompson observes. “That is why you will see the occasional female engineer or accountant getting on a board –
they’re closer to the male mind-set.”

Thompson also sees the role of the services side, such as human resources or corporate social responsibility, slowly being represented on boards. Those fields have been heavily represented by women in the oil patch.

It takes will for corporate boards and CEOs to include women’s voices. If there’s just one woman on the corporate board, she can raise the gender issue only so many times before patience wears thin.

To retain credibility, she needs to build alliances. An astute player learns quickly to pick the right battles. “You can’t blow your credit,” notes one woman who prefers to remain anonymous.
In challenging economic times, the status quo isn’t an option. Alternative voices should be sought rather than blocked. Unique experiences, distinct perspectives and inspired solutions can invigorate a board. Bringing on more women often introduces such change.

There are those in the industry who believe women lack the overarching vision to occupy the top spots. A recent study by Herminia Ibarra and Otilia Obodaru suggests this is a powerful stereotype. “Women are judged to be less visionary than men in 360-degree feedback. It may be a matter of perception, but it stops women from getting to the top,” states the January 2009 Harvard Business Review.

Vision is such a subjective notion, and surely this 21st century study couldn’t be accused of sexism. Yet, it was the male peers who noted women’s “lack of vision.” Women were, however, respected for their attention to detail.

Sendall, who has not seen women being any less visionary than men in her career, wonders whether different styles of thinking may have been the measurement. “Maybe it is the process difference that was noted? However, when you get strategic thinking balanced with attention to detail, it can be a pretty powerful combination.”

True men of vision could well take the findings of the study to a logical conclusion by hiring women who not only see the big picture, but also have the detail skills to ensure it gets painted.

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