#choosetochallenge

International Women’s Day has always been very meaningful to me. It’s a cause for celebration, for all the progress that we have made as a society towards gender equality, diversity and inclusions. We’ve seen in the past year, that this progression is at risk and being put into question!

As a country, Canada has made great progress, towards equality. 

• In 1918,  all white caucasian women get the right to vote to the federal elections. Only in1960, 42 years later, do all minority groups are finally allowed to vote, including aboriginal men and women.
• Quebec, in 1940 and the Northwestern Territories, 1951, were the last to grant women the right to vote in provincial elections.
• Before 1928, the Supreme Court of Canada, decided that women, could not be considered a « person ». However, in an appel to the Privy Council, women were finally considered as a « person » under the law, starting in 1929, giving them the right to hold political offices and have the right to possessions. 
• In 1930, Carine Reay Wilson, was the first woman to be named to Senate. 
• The federal government adopted the Canada Fair Employment Practices Act of 1953, which applied to the civil service; the Female Employees Equal Pay Act of 1956, which made wage discrimination based on sex against the law; and the Employment Equity Act of 1986, which applies to federally regulated employees and requires employers to identify and eliminate unnecessary barriers that limit employment opportunities.

Equality and discrimination laws are there to help us grow as a country, so all people have equal rights and opportunity, regardless of genders, races, religious beliefs and or sexual orientation.

It is hard, as an individual, not to have biases, depending of your upbringing, education, exposure, and more. I have some, and sometimes I catch myself mentally and I look within and challenge my thinking. I have prejudice, I take on judgment, but only I can decide how to change my thinking and behaviours. 

As an engineer, since my university education, I’ve been exposed to being a minority in my classes. Out of a graduate class of approximately 50 students, about 20% of us were women, a high ratio for our year compared to others. A pretty strong number when you consider that Engineers Canada has for mandate to reach 30% of woman in engineering by 2030. 

My decision at the time wasn’t based on a female role model or by some career advice I received by my orientation councillor, it was based off personal observation of my older cousin, who at the time was just getting into his career as an Electrical engineer, and based off my observations and interpretations of my family’s reaction, seemed to be a field where I could use my curious mind, my ability for science and math and by the looks of it, make a decent living. The fact that I made that choice, as a young woman, was made possible by the beliefs system that my parents raised me by, consciously and or not, that I could achieve anything that I wanted to and that they would support me 100% of the way. How lucky was I, coming from a smaller rural community, to have that support not just from my parents, but from my whole extended family. I am not sure if I didn’t have that support and upbringing that I would have taken the same route. 

In university, the positive environment allowed me to grow my confidence in myself, and develop life skills that I would carry with me throughout my career. My fellow male colleagues at the time, were respectful, supportive and treated you like you were one of their own! You felt safe in your environment, and you didn’t feel any different because you were a woman, you were an equal. That went a long way to give me confidence to be a professional woman, in a career that would evolved to take place in a male dominated industry. 

Throughout my career so far, the transportation industry, who’s known to be mostly conservative, has treated me well and give me lots of opportunities. I however, have to reflect on certain situations that occurred over the years, that makes me question if I’ve received equal opportunity as a women. This is not to point fingers at anyone or anybody, but to have a reflections, as to what is happening around us and our awareness of it.

* I was let go from a job, where I had lots of success at and glowing reviews, without cause. If I reflect on it, the only logical explanation I could find was because I was young, full of energy, and challenging the thought process of the business and the management, asking for more responsibilities and what I believed was adequate renumeration for my service. I was later replaced by a man, later in his career, that was happy to follow the process. Was it because I was a woman? Maybe, I’ll never know for sure, but any situation like this should trigger a reflection. 

*In industry events, I have received text messages, from man that I had exchanged business cards and probably a few words in a professional environment, at 2am in the morning, asking me for my room#. I’ve heard from other women, getting invited for a drink by such an individual, and get accosted without consent. I’ve been groped by man, on a few occasions, in a crowd full of people, where I had to set the record straight. In an industry that is looking to grow gender equality, those types of events, should be reported seriously, but should also be condemned by the other men in the room, and publicly by the the professional associations. I feel lucky because I had the courage to stand for myself, and do something about it.  I am thinking about, is the other women who don’t have the same courage and strength. It shouldn’t be this way. 

*I’ve also been at the receiving end of verbal abuse by men. Yes I was able to stand my ground once again, but when reported to my senior manager, or the manager of the individual in question, nothing was done. I had to deal with it on my own. This is were the courage of other men or women comes into play. As a manager, you need to have the managerial courage to hear your employees when they feel unsafe, and to act on it. Yes there will always be individuals that don’t behave properly, but you need to make sure your employees know they can count on you when it matters. To be at the receiving end of abuse, can affect your confidence, your self esteem, and your ability to chase after your dream. 

Those three situations are exemples of the barriers that still exist today, to equality in the work place and in our society. Those are examples that I went through, and they are some out there that are way worst than mine.

In today’s world, here are some of the gaps that exist out there:

• Only 4% of Canada’s CEO’s are women
• 35.9% of management roles in Canada (2020)
• 18.4% of business are owned by women (2013) 
• Board of Directors or Members, are composed of 18.1% of woman (2017)
• The average hourly earning for women was $0.87 for every dollar earned by men
• If you look at salaried employees this average goes down to $0.70

*Data pulled from Statistics Canada

The question is not about the need for progress anymore but how to progress.

We need to choose to challenge the situations that are causing barriers to equality. From feeling safe in the workplace, to domestic violence, to better support women that want have both children and a career, to the stigma that still exists around paternal leave. 

We need to educate kids on respect, compassion and equality. We need to adopt better behaviours as adults, and look within and reflect on our choices. We need to think of our daughters, sisters, sons, brothers, friends and parents,  and think how we would like them to be treated by others and how we would like them to others.  

To have equality means better and more informed decisions by our governments, a more balanced and compassionate approach to leadership, improve performances of businesses and growth of our economy!

We need to choose to challenge, all of us!