Status of Women committee  I'll share my experience. It started in 1997. That's when they were approved. As I moved up in the ranks and found myself liaising with other more senior women, I found out about DWAO. Now it's interesting, because the unit in which I currently work is about 50-50 male and female, including those more senior ranks within the small section I'm in.

Status of Women committee  Absolutely, and one more resource for me to educate myself on the concerns that I might not know about, but should be aware about as well.

Status of Women committee  I'll answer very quickly, and then I'll leave Ms. Davis some time as well. I think that we have to be careful in taking what is.... Women are wired a bit differently and we do like to communicate. We do like to talk about things and issues; whereas men are a little different along those lines.

Status of Women committee  Sexual harassment is treated under the umbrella of harassment. There isn't a separate process. However, when that element of sexual harassment comes into play, it certainly depends on the nature of the complaint. If it's a comment, that will be treated much quicker and in a different way than, say, if there was actually a physical element to it, and involved further parties, such as the military police.

Status of Women committee  That's correct.

Status of Women committee  Absolutely.

Status of Women committee  I think, as Ms. Davis said, it depends. When you get into an environment such as combat arms, which is a very masculine-type environment, I think that sense of needing to integrate is probably stronger than in, say, a logistics-based environment, where that stress and that need to be very masculine is reduced.

Status of Women committee  I think that respect for diversity is probably one of the foundations, sort of cornerstone constructs, that need to drive equality in the workplace. We all know there are probably organizations that will say on paper that employment equity is important, but until that respect for diversity and understanding that it's important actually become part of the culture, it's just a lot of exactly that: stuff on paper.

Status of Women committee  No, we don't track statistics or numbers. That would be an external party. I think Mr. Karol Wenek is an example of that. Was there a second part?

Status of Women committee  We don't actually do any formalized studies. Our role is one of guidance and advice. Actual studies, as they relate to identifying those statistics, are done by a party external to DWAO.

Status of Women committee  DWAO did not participate in that directly. I haven't. Individuals may have, in representing their role outside of DWAO, as a person of the CF. We didn't play a role. That would have been done, I'm assuming, by a research council outside of DWAO.

Status of Women committee  I think the reason you're seeing more senior people here at NDHQ is that the roles or the positions here at NDHQ are more senior ones, so by default those individuals would be more senior individuals, as opposed to positions on the ship, which would be more operational tradesmen.

Status of Women committee  Have I noticed the impact of those studies? I've certainly noticed the impact of...as we grow and evolve as an organization, we become more gender aware...the changes to policy in relation to those items. I joined in 1998, so I would caution that my experience starts there and a lot was already in place.

Status of Women committee  I think any exit interview should be reviewed. Keeping our people is a tough go. We're an employer for whom, certainly, our people are our main resource. If there are patterns specific to women, I think they should certainly be looked at. We haven't been asked, I haven't been asked yet, to review any of that information, but if there was something systemic that they thought DWAO could provide advice on, absolutely I could see us being pulled in to do so.

Status of Women committee  The advice is repeated several times because that really is the essence of DWAO. It's to provide that third party, ear-to-the-ground information up to the leadership. In all the cases I've been asked to provide advice on, the advice has been taken, but my experience has been limited to the time that I've had in the seat, of course, and that started in August of last year.