Commentary: The Big Fix
Huddle publishes commentaries from groups and individuals on important business issues facing the Maritimes. These commentaries do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Huddle.
By Robyn Tingley , founder of GlassSKY, an organization that works to advance women and encourage diversity.
In the world of gender equality, the conversation is changing. That was evident Thursday night at the YWCA’s second annual Women of Distinction Awards. Eight accomplished women were recognized for helping to build a stronger, healthier Saint John. Their work is truly remarkable, and each of them is a role model for the next generation.
Recognizing women publicly for being leaders is a fairly new phenomenon. For the last fifty years, the discussion has mostly been focused on why women deserve a seat at the table. This has manifested itself in advice for women on how to assert themselves, convey their value, and advance in leadership roles previously dominated by men. It has also resulted in countless studies that demonstrate how organizations make better decisions and generate stronger results when women are included in the decision making at the senior levels.
But with last night’s showcase of talent, drive and accomplishment, it’s clear we’ve evolved beyond having to prove ourselves as competent and capable. The ‘token’ woman doesn’t exist in today’s world.
Women arrived as leaders in their own right a long time ago. We’ve been earning over 50 per cent of the undergraduate degrees in Canada since 1979. There are hundreds of thousands of qualified and experienced women across every field, and areas like science, engineering, and tech are becoming more balanced with every new crop of graduates.
It’s no longer women who need ‘fixing’, but the system. Despite the availability of qualified and experienced women, our numbers at the highest levels in the workforce don’t reflect this. Why is that? Some argue that change takes time, and we should all be patient. If women merit the roles, they’ll eventually occupy them. But that approach is not working. There is no ‘trickle up’ happening. The system needs to change, and by the ‘system’, I mean the eco-system around women and girls that filters everything through a male lens. Whether it’s the media we consume, the way leadership skills are defined, or even how scripture is interpreted in some religions – the lens is all-too-often narrow with little room for women to shine.
Some of the best minds in this space are changing the conversation. At the Power Shift conference earlier this month in Washington, jointly hosted by Oxford and Georgetown, leaders from academia, business, non-profit and the religious sphere gathered to examine this very issue. Dr. Mike McDermott who teaches leadership to MBA students at Georgetown has been conducting an experiment. At the start of each school year, he asks his class to write down five names of leaders. Virtually none of them – including his female students – name a woman in their list. Yes, even in 2016. Then, after months of teaching them about broader definitions of leadership, and studying female leaders from Thatcher to Steinem, he runs the test again to see if any of them list women. What he finds is a slight increase in students who recognize women as ‘leaders’, but even after a year of exposure, the overwhelming majority of his students still associate leadership with men. His message? We need more female role models, and we need to shout their accomplishments from the rooftops. It’s the only way the next generation of girls will see a different face of leadership amidst all the clutter that emphasizes body image, sex and male dominance.
And that is what makes the work of the YWCA so important. Our community, and indeed our world, needs more messages of women succeeding across various fields – sports, politics, business, non profits, arts, and of course, the STEM fields. They also need to see the skills that are abundant in women leaders — compassion, candour, influence, and a highly collaborative approach to decision making to name a few. Women DO bring different skills and they are highly valuable.
Indeed, we all need to take every opportunity to celebrate women’s accomplishments and find ways to bring them to the forefront. If you have young girls in your life, tell them about last night’s award recipients, subscribe to A Mighty Girl or other empowering newsfeeds, or just put a picture of Malala up on the fridge to show them a new face of leadership. Fixing the system starts with us.
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