The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) donated $1 million to support a Carleton research centre focusing on the challenges women and minority groups face at work.
The donation is part of RBC’s 10-year commitment to the Centre for Research and Education on Women and Work (CREWW) at the Sprott School of Business.
“Fundraising is a process of matching what the recipient is looking to do . . . and what the donor’s interests are,” director of the centre Lorraine Dyke said.
The company expects the research will lead to more women taking up senior positions and more inclusive workplaces, RBC communications director Chris De Vito said via email.
It is ethical to include everyone, and high representation of women in senior positions increases profits, De Vito said.
“A lack of diversity, including gender diversity can impact overall employee engagement, productivity, and innovation,” De Vito said.
The donation will span 10 years, with the program receiving $100,000 each year. Thus, the research will last for that period, Dyke said.
RBC also wants the money to be used in two other ways: for Management Development Program for Women with an online learning program to reach women in remote communities, and for a speakers series on women in management, according to Carleton’s press release.
Although the series will be named after the RBC, they won’t be making decisions for these projects, Dyke said.
The research will help both current workers and students understand issues they might face in their offices, Dyke said.
She said one of the main target groups are immigrant women and women entrepreneurs.
Apart from those groups, the research will “very likely” include less visible minorities based on sex, religion, and language that the Employment Equity Act doesn’t identify, Dyke said.
Since 1994— two years after launching the centre— CREWW has published three main studies, with numerous smaller ones, Dyke said.
A 1998 study looked into opportunities and constraints among the federal public service workers, through asking questions such as their definition of success in career and in life.
Female workers tended to think they cannot be a mother and get promoted at the same time, the study concludes, among others.
Recommendations included asking why women think that’s the case, and that public service should facilitate promotions for working parents.
Dyke said the outcome of their research is hard to tell because “recommendations from our [CREWW’s] research are applicable to a very broad set of employers.”
Dyke said she knows CREWW is relevant because organization leaders come to share results of CREWW’s studies, ask its researchers to give speeches, and refer its works on their websites.
Those who graduated from the centre’s program have more obvious results.
Graduates from the women’s management program are promoted faster than other women working in the same office, said Dyke citing a tracking system CREWW made.
Apart from this donation, RBC gave the centre $350,000 for reasearch in 1994, Dyke said.
