For 18 years, Jay Rosenzweig has published his Rosenzweig Report, an annual report on women at the top levels of the corporate world (C-Suite) in Canada. 

Since 2006, the Report has been endorsed by Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Meta’s former COO Sheryl Sandberg, Alyssa Milano, Ndaba Mandela, Andrew Yang, Deepak Chopra, Mark Cuban, and many more. 

Rosenzweig, the founder and CEO of Rosenzweig & Company, is also a trained lawyer, humanitarian, and an internationally renowned social impact entrepreneur.

Launched in 2004, the Canadian-based company is a globally renowned executive recruitment and leadership strategy firm that helps build high-performing teams for private and public companies. 

With a deep analysis of revenue, positions held, and accomplishments, the Report also provides a high-end analysis of the milestones attained by women in Canada’s private, public, and non-profit sectors.

This year’s 18th Annual Rosenzweig Report, which dropped on March 8 in recognition of International Women’s Day, revealed an all-time high of woman senior executives at Canada’s largest corporations. 

“When we began doing this research 18 years ago, there were only 23 women in these leadership positions, or 4.6 percent,” said Jay Rosenzweig, founder and CEO of Rosenzweig & Co.

With 523 named executive officers (NEOs) at Canada’s largest publicly-traded companies, 57 are women – up seven from 50 last year. 

Of the 57 women executives, only seven are BIPOC. The harsh reality is that 466 of the 523 executives are men – or 89.1 percent. 

He emphasized that this slight increase from last year warrants much more work to be done in the future:

“We have long stated that our wish is to put ourselves out of the job of publishing this annual report once the number of women NEOs reaches a minimum of 30 percent – that time still appears to be on the distant horizon.”

This year’s Report, however, adds something new to its pages that hasn’t been seen over the past 17 years – Web3. 

18th Annual Rosenzweig Report, cover art by Parin Heidari

From Pussy Riot founder Nadya Tolokonnikova and TIMEPieces artist, Parin Heidari to Swan Sit, Women Rise founder Maliha Abidi, Vayner3 President Avery Akkineni, Boss Beauties co-founder Lisa Mayer, the recognition of Web3’s most impactful women artists and founders adds a heartfelt touch to this year’s Rosenzweig Report. The report’s cover art was also designed by Heidari.  

“I think orientation towards community was very inspiring to me,” Rosenzweig told Hypemoon over Zoom about how Web3 helped shape this year’s published report. “Web3 really permeates the report both physically, as well as in terms of the vibe that permeates throughout, and the soul of the report has a very big Web3 element to it.”

Tolokonnikova, the founder of the anti-establishment punk collective, Pussy Riot and UnicornDAO, shared her life’s work in advocating for human rights and gender equality. 

“Why? I want to make sure that girls like my 14-year-old daughter don’t feel limited by the ‘boys club’ mentality that is still prevalent in society – from Disney movies teaching girls to be passive and just wait for somebody to come and save them to big businesses where so few women leaders hold top positions. We’re seeing gender rights trampled on the world over – from Putin’s Russia and Iran to the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.,” Tolokonnikova stated in the Report.

Speaking to Rosenzweig’s humanitarian efforts, Tolokonnikova recognized him as “an ally in [their] fight on several levels” – from his ongoing work on women’s rights, including his advocacy work on behalf of the women of Iran, his support for Ukraine and its First Lady and her foundation, his platform as Board Chair of Irwin Cotler’s Raoul Wallenberg Centre For Human Rights, and his annual Rosenzweig Report.

Lisa Mayer, co-founder and CEO of Boss Beauties, commended Rosenzweig’s report for “spotlighting women’s achievements and opportunities for growth that are paramount to economies advancing initiatives that help women realize their full potential.”

Shannon Snow, the COO of World of Women (WoW), also weighed in:

“Almost 1,000 years ago, the great philosopher Maimonides said that we anticipate charity by preventing poverty. Web3 can and will lift us all up and be a great social and economic equalizer – imagine a future where impoverished women in Africa can sell their art and other products as easily as auctioneers at the great houses in London, New York, and Beijing. Maimonides could never have envisioned this new technology, but it is our responsibility to anticipate charity by using it to reduce poverty around the world.”

According to Rosenzweig, there are a number of ways to approach this year’s Report.

“The ironclad data, as it relates to the percentage of women in business, is something to pay attention to and track year-after-year, as we’ve been doing. It really puts companies to account, because we lay out very specifically which companies are doing better than others, which don’t have any women in their top ranks,” he shared.

He added that the “moral imperative of equality” is extremely important to consider when reading through the Report. 

“If you’re a business person, you should know that study after study shows that the greater diversity around the board table, the better diversity in your senior ranks – time after time, the better the business results. It stands to logic that the more diversity, the more the creativity, and the more creativity, the greater the vision for a business and the better the business results.”

Another aspect to glean from the Report, is the geo-political and social crisis happening in the world right now – specifically, in Ukraine, Iran, and Myanmar. 

“Not everybody is necessarily paying attention to the details of what’s happening, and there’s a lot of very, very good nuggets of information about what’s happening on the ground,” Rosenzweig says.

He emphasizes that in order to affect change, it’s crucial to understand what’s going on in these regions of the world. From reading the Report’s preamble, line testimonials, and quotes, it really hits home with the emotional pleas that move people to find a way to act and do their part to help reverse some of the injustices that we’re seeing around the world.

In other news, read about MissJourney’s AI Alternative Breaking the Gender Bias Barrier.