Thank you, Ms. Robertson and Ms. Armour, for your very informative presentations. I think we all definitely appreciate the work that you've done when it comes to promoting the importance of role modelling, and the work that you've done to make that a reality.
When we look at the statistics of women involved in engineering, mathematics, and natural sciences, there are some pretty disappointing trends overall. I was part of the status of women committee in the last Parliament when we looked at women in the trades, particularly, and some of the reasons behind that. When we look at the overall statistics of women in these fields, we notice that in 1987 only 19.5% were women when it came to these occupations. Moving forward to 2009, just a couple of years ago, that percentage only went up by a couple of points, and is now at 22.3%.
I'm familiar, as somebody who has women engineers in my family—and male engineers as well—with the kinds of programs that are out there. But it seems to me that there's more to it in terms of the barriers that women face. Could I ask you, Ms. Robertson, what kinds of barriers do women face, beyond the lack of role models when it comes to entering these professions?