N.W.T. gov't appointing higher percentage of women to public boards

More women are serving on public boards in the Northwest Territoriescompared to a year ago.

New statistics from the Department of Executive show that half of the people sitting on boards everything from the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board to the Aurora College Board of Directors are now women.

As of Tuesday, there were 124 women and 124 men sitting on boards a 50/50 split.

That's up from a year before, when only 46 per cent of board members were women.

Mandate called for improved 'gender equity'

The increase comes as MLAs in the current 18th legislative assembly look to "improve gender equity in appointments to territorial boards and agencies", as set out in the mandate they adopted at the start of their term.

Since then, the government has appointed 107 people, 56 per cent of whom are women.

Recent appointees from different governmentsinclude Sunny Munroe to the review board and Brenda Gauthier to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment's Student Financial Assistance Appeal Board.

An up-to-date registry of new appointments is maintained by the government here.