Status of Women Committee on May 30th, 2017

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

You're going to let me?

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

You have 40 seconds.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Ms. Meck, the last question I was going to ask you, based on my other series of questions, was this. Would you agree that peer-to-peer support is actually more important than government programs are?

[Iris Meck]

I think they go hand in hand. Peer support is up to the individual, but the governments, federal and provincial, can help by instituting funding for women to attend conferences, and having training programs and educational programs available to them.

We have to remember that on the rural side there's a lot of isolation. Where does a woman go to get assistance in building a business, and understanding finances for business? It's not like there's a Scotiabank or RBC just around the corner. There's distance involved.

I think the federal and provincial governments can help by making unrestrictive programs to allow for assistance in funding, so that women have the opportunity to take some training.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

The last five minutes go to Ms. Damoff.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

I'm sharing my time with Mr. Fraser.

Do you want to start?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

No, go ahead.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Okay.

To go back to me again, I would like to say that while my colleague may look fondly back on the previous governments, I for one don't want to go back to a time when I had to have a male colleague ask the head office for permission for me to attend a meeting with him, or go back to 1993, when women with disabilities couldn't vote. I think it's important for all of us to recognize where we are but to be looking forward in trying to make the changes we can make going forward.

Dorothy, you brought up the blind applications, but our government actually is doing that as a pilot to see if and how that changes this. We can talk about merit-based all we want, but as I've heard quite often from colleagues in business, if it came down to a man or a woman, they would hire the man, because a young woman is going to have children. There's a natural bias against hiring women.

One of the things I've heard a lot is that young girls are taught not to take risks. You mentioned the science class, where the boys have their faces in the test tubes and the girls are taking notes. I wonder how important you see risk-taking at a young age so that later on in life, whether in business or politics or science or engineering, a woman will take that leap of faith to apply for that job, or in agriculture a woman will say “yes” and get out there and do it.

How important is it that young girls are not protected, are not taught to not take those risks or leaps of faith? I'd like both of you to answer that. Is there anything we can do to help instill that in young women?

[Dorothy Byers]

I took a leap of faith starting FIRST Robotics in an all-girls school. I call them my “Thelma and Louise” moments.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Dorothy Byers]

But we land, you know. We're not quite sure where we're going to land, or how we're going to do it, but I believe that as women, as role models, we help young girls understand that risk-taking is good. Girls in particular, little ones, have such curiosity about the world. They are fearless. We need to sustain that desire to test and to push and to challenge, to not be afraid of failure, and to understand that failure is the biggest teacher and the greatest teacher. It gives you an opportunity to understand how you could change things to make them better.

That flies in the face of perfectionism in girls. As a society, we need to do everything we possibly can to help girls, at the youngest ages and all the way through, appreciate that they don't have to be perfect. They have to be brave. They have to be courageous. They have to know how to get around the glass obstacle course that they will face. I love the sticky floor, but the glass obstacle course also means that they will hit things that they don't know how to get over and around, or even see, but they will, because they have the resilience and they have the skills and they're not afraid of failing. They'll put their names forward.

So Pam, I believe the more we can do for young women to give them opportunities the better, where they are not afraid to fail, where they know there's a network, where they know there are supports for them, and where they know they're empowered and men are engaged to be able to support them as they try their wings.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Iris, did you want to answer that?

[Iris Meck]

Yes. First off, I think we have to recognize that women who grew up on the farm recognize risks right from the start. That's the way the farming operation is. I think when women go to things like 4-H and organizations that bring all the opportunities to them, they learn risk management. If you don't grow up on a farm and understand the risks that happen every day in the farming operation, there's a great opportunity to learn from peers and to hear real-life stories of women who have been challenged through their careers. That's what we try to do at Advancing Women.

I think the more women can network, the more women can experience relationships with other women who have succeeded. Learning from real-life stories is of the utmost importance. Again, any way to get women off the farm, off the chair at the office, and pooled up into a formalized group is nothing but beneficial.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

That's your time, Ms. Damoff.

To the witnesses, thank you for the excellent input you've given us to help with our study. It's wonderful.

I also want to tell the committee that one of the topics that will be important for us to follow with interest is the investigation into the murdered and missing aboriginal women that begins today.

I think the last word on that goes to Ms. Malcolmson.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Because this is the first day of the inquiry and because this committee has heard from witnesses about the importance of it, I just want to put on the record, on behalf of all our committee members, our support for the families, and our best wishes for the inquiry and its commissioners in doing the important work that the country needs.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Well said.

The meeting is adjourned.