The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that the push to add more women to boards of directors is slowing at Canadian companies as diversity initiatives lose momentum, a new report has concluded. A New York Times dispatch to The Globe says that a review of 610 companies shows women held 29.8 per cent of a total of 4,860 board seats in 2024, a 1.3-percentage-point increase from a year earlier, according to an annual diversity study by law firm Osler Hoskin. By comparison, the proportion of women on boards climbed an average of 2.1 percentage points annually between 2015 and 2023. Women accounted for 38.1 per cent of board seats at companies listed in the S&P/TSX Composite Index, and 39.7 per cent of board seats among the largest companies included in the S&P/TSX 60. A key reason for the slowing growth of women on boards is the declining proportion of women filling new or vacant board seats, which fell to 40.4 per cent this year from 45.3 per cent last year. Report co-author John Valley said the results were surprising because he had expected to see continued growth from 2023. Mr. Valley said the slowdown may be owing to companies reaching the diversity targets set by influential proxy advisory firm ISS.