We cannot afford to backslide on the progress we have made on hiring, promoting, and retaining women at the highest levels in our workforce. That’s one of the reasons why tracking numbers around diversity is so important. Canada will always lead by example. After all, diversity is our strength. But to ensure the advancement of diverse women in positions of senior corporate leadership, we all need to work together.

Jay Rosenzweig, the inspiring Chair of our Raoul Wallenberg Centre For Human Rights Board, has issued yet again his report on women in leadership, as a call to action to do more to achieve gender equity in the boardrooms of our nation and beyond. His work empowers women and puts them at the forefront not only in corporate boards, but in all walks of life, be it...

When there are barriers placed in the way of individual’s reaching their full human potential, it is not only frustrating for them, it also lessens us all. In that regard, The Rosenzweig Report serves as a powerful reminder that more needs to be done to provide women with opportunities to find fulfillment in their chosen pursuits.

We need more than women in positions of power. We need women there who are clear about the purpose of power: not just to bolster structures that already exist, but to disrupt and repair them in order to serve humanity most deeply. It’s not just about women – it’s also about children, about men, about animals, about the planet. If women are evolving, it’s for a much greater purpose than mere pay equity. It’s so we can rise up and recreate the world.

As my personal mentor Oprah Winfrey says, it is important to turn struggles into strength. Women struggle on many fronts, including in the business world. The Rosenzweig Report serves a vital role by charting women’s ability to advance to senior positions in business and serves as an inspiration to do better.

We live in a world where time is money but when it comes to Jay, time is more valuable than money and he creates time to make everyone feel valid and important. That is how he is able to rally so many disparate voices together for the cause of justice and equality. He knows that relationships, family, friends and colleagues are worth more than dollars.

The Rosenzweig Report, founded by Jay Rosenzweig, is an important and useful tool in highlighting how much more needs to be done to encourage and support women in the workplace.

As a musician and as one who travels the world practicing my art form, I have observed that collaboration and inclusion makes for better music and for better societies. The Rosenzweig Report plays an important role in that regard, because it tells us how far we have come, while also reminding us of how much further we have to go.

Companies benefit when they are led by individuals with dissimilar life experiences and outlooks, ones that better represent our current global and interdependent world. In that sense The Rosenzweig Report is an important mirror reflecting the progress we have made – and how much more we must do.

The Rosenzweig report plays an important role in highlighting that there is a lot of work to be done to close the gender gap, so that we can achieve equality and shatter glass ceilings that continue to hold women back. I commend Jay Rosenzweig for championing this report year after year. I always look forward to reading about the steps taken closer towards gender equality, as well as to his suggestions on what we can do together to make the necessary changes needed to make the goal achievable.

In 2020, there are still far too few women in our c-suites, boardrooms and leading the companies designing the tech solutions we will all rely on in the future. We have a long way to go to build a truly gender equal world in which all types of women can thrive. And each of us can play a role. If we each make the effort to go out of our way to open doors, create opportunities, build bridges, lend a hand up to advance women with more intentionality and generosity – we will move the dial way faster, together.

Obtaining dignity, respect and advancement for women is not just a woman's issue, it’s a human rights issue. It requires including men and welcoming their help to change behaviour and perceptions. Jay Rosenzweig, through The Rosenzweig Report and his support for the #MeToo movement, shows that men can be important and effective allies and advocates for real change.

I started the Humanity Helping Sudan Project to aid refugees like me and then founded a company called 734 Coffee to help fund educational programs for these refugees. Jay and I come from very different backgrounds but we both feel like the lucky ones and Jay’s fight for gender equality is his passion and I salute him for it.