The Globe and Mail Bookmark Please log in to listen to this story. Also available in French and Mandarin. Log In Create Free Account Getting audio file ... This translation has been automatically generated and has not been verified for accuracy. Full Disclaimer Bay Street’s boys’ club has a long history of making nonsensical excuses to exclude women from positions of power. One infamous incident occurred in 1976, when W. Earle McLaughlin, then chairman and president of Royal Bank of Canada, caused an uproar when he claimed the country’s largest bank couldn’t find a qualified woman to serve on its 48-member board of directors. Never mind that smaller rivals had already pulled off this seemingly impossible feat, including Bank of Montreal, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Mr. McLaughlin insisted his bank came up empty after scouring the entire country for credentialled women.