Status of Women committee  I often try to translate how the career can attract anybody. I recently spoke to a grade five class and asked them, who wants to travel around the world and make an enormous amount of money and find a diamond mine? Every kid in the class had their hand up; they wanted to travel, see the world, and have a fabulous career.

Status of Women committee  From my perspective, the report indicated that it is about more than numbers, that there's a certain level of employment strategies that have to be taken, and that leadership has to be provided. Until industry recognizes that it's a problem, they're not really prepared to take steps to address it.

Status of Women committee  In the exploration and mining industry, I think direct harassment is probably less a reality today. There was a perception when I started as a geologist in 1977 that if a woman went into a remote field camp with a team of men, there could be a riot. There would be unacceptable behaviour.

Status of Women committee  Thank you, Ms. Neville. It's a pleasure seeing you again from Manitoba. We shared some time together on the Winnipeg school board. I believe that perhaps we felt we'd made significant inroads with women in science, and perhaps we've backed off on some of those programs. I think that's a mistake.

Status of Women committee  Thank you very much. Thank you for the opportunity to speak this afternoon. I'm going to be talking about enhancing the role and participation of women in the non-traditional occupations in extraction and exploration, often combined and known as mining. Women in Mining is an organization that was created in 2009, focused on advancing the interests of women in the minerals exploration and mining sector.