Good afternoon, mesdames. It's great to hear from women who have such fascinating careers. It was also news to me that we could work in the mines. I must admit it's quite tempting. These are things that we have little or no knowledge of, often as a result of education.
To go back to what someone said a little earlier, it's often said that girls or young girls and mathematics or technology... I have two daughters, 20 and 21, and they aren't very attracted because they don't think this is prestigious enough. We often get the impression that it's a mountain, and we don't always make these occupations attractive. We women like things with more emotion. For us, figures don't tell us a lot about emotions. They speak to our heads.
We talked about image. I'm really concerned about that because I realize, when I speak with my daughters' group of girls and their friends, that they often have a biased image of women who carry on non-traditional occupations. The image that those kinds of women often project is that of tomboys, and yet a lot of women in those occupations can be in uniforms in mines and be very well dressed and in high heels five minutes later.
How do we go about selling these occupations to young girls? We're talking about the generation following us, and we see how fascinating it can be to carry on a non-traditional occupation. How can we educate our young girls across Canada so that these occupations become attractive to them?