Status of Women committee  Unconscious bias is the idea that we all, inside of ourselves, have attitudes and ways that we behave toward people, judgments we make about people, regardless of what our higher thinking is telling us to do. We have a belief, particularly when it comes to promotion, particularly

Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  I think one thing that's needed is emergency funds for women. Certainly there are emergency loan funds that are run by individual organizations. It's a lot of pressure for the individual organizations to run something like that, but whether you're experiencing a sudden economic l

Status of Women committee  There used to be in a few provinces—I'm sorry, but I'm not familiar with all of the ins and outs of it—emergency funds available, particularly for women, particularly in certain situations of violence, which would help them in a few provinces, but—

Status of Women committee  We'll have to check that for you.

Status of Women committee  The one thing I would add is that we're a member of a national and international network on how violence against women affects women in the workplace, on how it distracts them and causes them to lose productivity at work. Also, they will not necessarily apply for promotions and t

Status of Women committee  Absolutely. Thank you. We have a leadership institute specifically for women. It's been piloted over three years. Twenty-five women each year go to the Coady International Institute and do a model that is very focused on executive leadership. It is directed at supporting their l

Status of Women committee  Yes, absolutely. We have focused on women retraining in trades and technology. In particular, we have looked at women-only programs. One of the reasons for that is obviously the gender bias, which we have spoken about many times, in industries that have been more typically attrac

Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  Thank you very much. Thank you, Chair, and honoured members. I'm very excited to be with you today and talk about gender parity in Canada and particularly, as we see around the table, the growing representation of women in positions of leadership. That's a very positive start.

Status of Women committee  It was about online violence. For us, the definition of “violence” is psychological, physical, online, financial, sexual. It encompasses everything. The violence that I think is critically difficult for young women to deal with right now is online stalking and harassment. It is d

Status of Women committee  To answer your question about focusing earlier, I completely agree. We know that the organizations we work with have told us that they have been invited into grade 6 classes. Those are young people 10 and 11 years old. We know there are some programs, in Montreal in particular, t

Status of Women committee  Is the question for me?

Status of Women committee  Okay. Yes, I think what's important is that the federal government take a leadership role and that the provinces understand that there is an expectation that universities and colleges have to have policies and procedures in place. I understand that education is provincially mand

Status of Women committee  Thank you very much for the question. I will also answer in English because I'm more used to talking about these issues in that language, but I will be happy to practise my French later.