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Yedlin: Calgary's support for women in workforce heard in Washington

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A certain cynicism surrounded Monday’s hastily convened meeting of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump that also brought together leading businesswomen to discuss challenges in the working world.

Some of the cynicism stemmed from the documented distasteful behaviour Trump has exhibited toward women, raising questions of his credibility on the file. Another factor is the reality women have faced, and fought against, since the 1960s — a lack of upward mobility, persistent wage gaps, inadequate supports and inaccessible child care.

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There is no getting around the fact female labour force participation rates in Canada and the United States continue to lag.

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If either country is to achieve its economic growth targets, half of the population can’t be on the outside, their collective noses pressed up against the glass. That means examining the barriers that limit participation or cause women to drop out of the corporate rat race.

The Canada-United States Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders, formed from Monday’s cross-border meeting, will address those issues.

Much has already been studied and said over the years, but progress has been slow.

Canada has a bit more to crow about — and to teach the U.S. — since a greater percentage of women work in Canada than south of the border. We have daycare that is mostly accessible, maternity leaves that are months longer and opportunities for parental leave.

When it comes to a country that espouses family values, the lack of decent maternity leave or affordable and accessible daycare in the U.S. suggests a family-based value system that assumes women should be staying at home. Without the support infrastructure, many don’t have a choice.

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It’s why a task force to address these persistent and systemic issues of inequity is of paramount importance. 

From that perspective, score one for the office of Prime Minister Trudeau, which came up with the idea to convene a meeting of female business leaders on both sides of the border to address these very real issues.

It was fitting that TransAlta chief executive Dawn Farrell was among the Canadian contingent.

Farrell not only leads a company with a $2 billion market capitalization and more than $10 billion in assets, she was also involved in a Harper government task force in 2014 that made recommendations on how to increase the number of women in the corporate ranks and around boardroom tables.

Those recommendations led to the ‘comply or explain’ regulations adopted by securities commissions across the country. The regulations — Alberta only came to the table last September — require non-venture listed companies to disclose their practices on the advancement of women within their corporate hierarchies as well as address initiatives aimed at increasing the number of female directors.

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In the corporate world for three decades, Farrell is intimately acquainted with the challenges women face when looking to climb the corporate ladder; more so in Calgary’s energy-heavy and engineering-dominant workforce.

She gets what works, and what doesn’t, and took that knowledge to Washington, D.C. 

While there were no deliverables or a timetable for further meetings — leading some to question if it was only a photo op — Farrell believes there is a commitment by both governments to address the issues.

While the group discussed a number of challenges, including the wage gap and the need for benefits to support women in the workforce, one topic was the issue of women needing to develop the confidence to take risks and reach higher.

“When women are approached to do something that reaches beyond their established skill set, they question whether they are ready,” said Farrell.

Men, on the other hand, are ready to take that risk.

There’s an idiom for that. Women ‘take care’ and men ‘take charge.’

The question is what will it take to change that so that women also take charge. Is it sponsorship? Mentorship? A change in pedagogy in the school system? All of the above? 

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Farrell is of the view that a part of the solution lies in women moving into operational roles, where they have responsibility for profit and loss functions.

“When women get to the executive suite they have to be running something, not advising … but they are strategic in their thinking and articulate, and therefore they get moved into those (advisory) roles, rather than those that are hands on,” she said. 

The fact Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, is part of the new Canada-U. S. council gives Farrell a measure of optimism that progress can be made. It was Ivanka who turned delegates at the Republican National Convention on their collective heads when she spoke of the challenges women face in the workplace and that her father would work to bridge the gaps, whether in achieving pay equity or creating accessible and affordable daycare. 

Still, with a cabinet makeup far short of Trudeau’s gender parity — not to mention age cohort — it’s tough to believe President Trump is as committed to this agenda as Trudeau, or Ivanka.

That said, Trump and Trudeau have embarked on an initiative that women in both Canada and the U.S. will watch carefully and want to see evidence of progress.

They should be mindful of 18th Century English playwright William Congreve: “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

Falling short on their commitments is not an option. 

Deborah Yedlin is a Calgary Herald columnist

dyedlin@postmedia

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