Research to Effect Policy Level Change

DI's strategy for promoting the innovation process that is inclusive requires government and organizational leadership that is reflective of the diversity of the nation's population. A variety of research initiatives have highlighted the lack of diversity within government and corporate leadership as well as in academia and even in the media. For instance DI's DiversityLeads project which was a multi-year research study has collected data from Toronto in addition to Montreal in the years 2011-2019. It was a benchmark study and assessing the advancement of females and people of color in leadership positions at the top and board of directors in six sectors using an intersectional lens. The progress has been made however, huge gaps remain In Toronto as an example which is where more than 50% of the population is race-conscious, white women are more likely to be the racialized females in corporate boardrooms by 10 to 1. Of the 300 board members of corporate just 4 percent were racialized. Only one was classified as black.

Research from projects such as DiversityLeads helped to influence changes in laws, including the Bill C-25 which was approved in the year 2018, which requires federally registered businesses (55 percent of corporations in Canada) to disclose publicly the diversity of their boards, devise a diversity plan and set goals, or justify the reasons for their inability to Initially, the proposed regulations of C-25 only required disclosure of gender. However, DI proved the other categories were less protected and claimed that the law provided an opportunity to improve the status of other groups that were underrepresented, like minorities of racial origin, Indigenous peoples, and disabled persons as mandated by Canadian's Employment Equity legislation. In consequence of DI's efforts and advocacy, the regulations were changed to include a definition of diversity , as well as making disclosures to shareholders regarding at least one of the four groups that were designated.

The majority of programs that support entrepreneurs, such as those designed to aid economic recovery following COVID 19, concentrate on SMES that employ employees, with the unfortunate consequence of being unable to support women. In bringing up these structural issues, the work by DI identified the gaps in support and services in crucial areas. The COVID-19 outbreak revealed that women entrepreneurs were more affected by the heaviness burden of childcare and homeschooling, and there is no way to recover without solving these problems. Understanding the structural causes have been a major influence on DI's work with immigrants as well as indigenous Black entrepreneurs.