Canada 150 Women_Conversations with Leaders, Champions, and Luminaries Page 2
If you were to write a book, what would its title be?
Rule #78: Shelley’s Rules of Engagement.
Christina Anthony
“There is always a way to accomplish a goal; but it involves strategy, hard work, and often amended expectations along the way.”
Birthplace Richmond, BC
What age do you feel 30
Occupation VP, director, portfolio manager, founder and chair of Forum for Women Entrepreneurs
Book you gift most Be Prepared: A Practical Handbook for New Dads by Gary Greenberg and Jeannie Hayden
Favourite drink Pinot Grigio
Favourite place in Canada Vancouver
What will it take to achieve gender parity?
When little boys and girls see their mothers as capable and equal forces in the home and business, they will grow into business leaders who make no subconscious distinction between genders. This seems so simple, but it will take a long time. We have made headway but are nowhere near achieving true parity in the minds and hearts of our younger generations.
If you had the gift of a year off, in a paused world, what would you work on?
I would work toward the empowerment of young people. My mother always says, “Success is where hard work meets opportunity.” There are many young people who have the inherent capability and drive to achieve great success, but whose opportunities for “takeoff” are not there. Whether it is tuition, mentorship/life coaching, or just a comfortable place to study and live, they need help getting started.
Tell us about a time when you had to summon all of your courage.
Recently, my ten-year-old son was in the hospital for several weeks and the doctors did not understand what was wrong with him. Over this period, I had to summon my courage to truly balance what I needed to be at each moment to make him better... whether it was being the bulldog fighting to figure out what was wrong; or being calm and listening to him to console him but fighting back tears so he wouldn’t see that I was scared; or trying to make sure the rest of our family was okay. Since that experience, my family calls me the “moctor” (as in the mom-doctor), and my son is now healthy and happy.
What message would you put on a billboard, and where?
In every high school girls’ bathroom: “It’s always possible.” I can’t tell you how many times women have shared their goals with me and, when pushed, are hesitant to really raise their own bar because they are walking the fine line between dreams and realism. Sometimes we subconsciously set our own limits without even realizing we are doing so. I believe almost anything is possible, but it won’t always be easy.
If you were to get a tattoo of one word, what would it be?
“Hustle.”
Louise Arbour
“Canada needs more of equality and less of pollution.”
Birthplace Montreal, QC
Occupation United Nations official and lawyer
Book you gift most Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Favourite drink Bloody Caesar
Favourite place in Canada Home, currently in the Laurentians
If you could have dinner with any woman, alive or dead, who would it be?
Eve—to find out if it really all started that way and whether she thinks it worked out okay.
What will it take to achieve gender parity?
Men to appoint women and then women to appoint women. The first part has started to happen. It had to start that way. There was no other way. There were no women in my generation. When I was younger, for years I had a cartoon on my fridge from the New Yorker and it said, “Behind every great man, there’s a woman, and behind every great woman, there’s a cat.” I always thought it was very funny. Later on, I scratched it out and put, “Behind every great man, there’s a woman, and behind every great woman, there’s a man who appointed her” for women of my generation. It had to start that way and now women need to look after each other.
What does Canada need more and less of?
More equality and less pollution.
If you had the gift of a year off, in a paused world, what would you work on?
Learn Spanish. It’s the dream that I keep postponing, and frankly, I think it’s never going to happen.
If you were to write a book, what would its title be?
The Smell of Ice: The Thrill of the Unexpected.
What age do you feel?
It depends. Currently I feel sixty. Usually it’s considerably younger before I step out of bed in the morning, and it progresses as the day goes on. If I’m going for a long walk, I probably feel like I’m 130 after twenty minutes. In my head, I easily feel twenty or thirty. I like Leonard Cohen’s “Tower of Song.” There’s a line that says, “I ache in the places where I used to play.” That’s why I settled for sixty, realistically.
What are Canada’s best traits?
Space, openness, vitality.
What message would you put on a billboard, and where?
“If you don’t know where you’re going, you risk not getting there.” I think it’s Yogi Berra who supposedly said that or something similar. It sounds like him. I would put it right in the middle of a roundabout.
What has become more important and less important to you in the last few years?
More important is everything in life that has nothing to do with work. Friends, leisure, everything. Less important is work. I’ve had to balance life and work all my life. I have three kids and always worked full-time. It balances out, but it has to work for a lot of people. It has to work for you, your family, your employer, your colleagues, and sometimes it tips more to one side and we try to adjust it by tipping it to the other side. It’s an acrobat’s performance of a lifetime.
Knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently when you were first starting out?
Learn English. I’m still working on it. According to my children and my friends, I still can’t properly pronounce “women” in the singular or plural form. I know it’s true and it is what it is. I’m very conscious of it, but it’s not going to change now. I started learning English midway through law school. I wish I’d mastered English earlier—before we read A Tale of Two Cities in high school.
When do you feel most powerful?
When I have a good idea.
What are the characteristics of the people you keep closest?
Smart, funny, loyal, unassuming, and flawed.
If you were to get a tattoo of one word, what would it be?
Because I would never get a tattoo, “OMGWHATHAVEIDONE?”
Jean Augustine
“We need to take risks and we need to encourage our young people to take risks.”
Birthplace Grenada
What age do you feel 30 or 40
Occupation Former educator, politician, and advocate for social justice
Favourite drink Coconut water
Favourite place in Canada The lakeshore area of Etobicoke, ON
Tell us about the work that you’re doing at the Jean Augustine Centre for Young Women’s Empowerment.
We enable young women to give them a sense of direction, a realization that they have strength, the ability to achieve as much as they would like, the ability to find mentors and role models. At the same time, we provide specific learnings; the centre is built around a huge industrial kitchen where we cook; we have an attached kitchen garden and the girls plant, reap, weed, and do all the things necessary to see plants grow that are part of the menus.
When we are cooking or doing whatever, it’s not just about learning nutrition, the health values, etc.; it’s also an opportunity for conversation. While you’re chopping the pepper and you’re finding out what there is in the fruit you have in your hand; you also have an opportunity to bring to the attention of the instructor whatever is on your mind.
What has been a defining moment in your personal or professional life?
When Pierre Elliott Trudeau, through one of his ministers, invited me to be an advisor on
the Committee for the Status of Women. Pulling me away from my daily classroom activity into an environment that was national—that was a defining moment for me.
What does success mean to you?
To be happy with wherever you are at, that’s success. It’s setting goals, and working toward the goals, and arriving at the goal and saying, “Yeah!” For me, success has nothing to do with money. It’s that internal sense of fulfillment; the sense that you provided service to others.
What message would you put on a billboard?
“Go for it. Do not be afraid.”
What does being Canadian mean to you?
Canada is the best country in the world, the place where I was able to grow, develop, and reach what I consider to be my full potential.
How has your view of feminism changed over your lifetime?
Overall I have seen great, great changes—from women’s ability to get loans from a bank, to do things in their own names, to walk into a room as single women, to go forward and to reach for whatever there is. At the same time as I see some progress being made, I see several gaps we still need to work on.
If you were to get a tattoo of one word, what would it be?
“Resilience.”
Janet Austin
“Show kindness, empathy, and encouragement. When you treat people well and expect the best of them, they seldom disappoint you.”
Birthplace Calgary, AB
Occupation CEO, YWCA
Book you gift most A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews
Favourite drink Sparkling water
Favourite place in Canada Pacific Rim National Park
What does Canada need more of?
Thomas King begins his award-winning book The Inconvenient Indian with the ironic comment that “Canada is, according to Canada, a just society.” He is right to point out the disparity between our aspirations for our country and our current reality, particularly in relation to the appalling historic treatment of Indigenous peoples. We need a genuine and systemic commitment to reconciliation.
If you could have dinner with any woman, alive or dead, who would it be?
Doris Anderson—because she pushed for the creation of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women, led the way for significant advances in women’s equality, and was largely responsible for women getting equality rights included in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
What does success mean to you?
Success, for me, is about contributing to our community and our country—improving the quality of life for people in general, but for women and children in particular. I’m very proud of the front-line services delivered by the YWCA, but what really drives me is the chance to contribute to public policy reforms that deliver real systemic change, enhance gender equality, and promote pluralism and diversity. It’s a privilege to be part of a team that truly does makes the world a better place. I feel this way about both my day job and my role as a community volunteer.
What age do you feel?
I turned sixty this year and I can honestly say that the older I get, the happier I am. While it would be lovely to have the physical gifts of youth, I wouldn’t trade away the knowledge, self-confidence, and sense of self-determination that comes with age and experience. It’s important, I think, to value and enjoy each stage in life. An elderly friend of mine was fond of a quote often attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt: “Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift.” By her example, this friend showed me what it means to live every day as a gift.
What is the best investment you’ve made?
Building strong and positive relationships with family, friends, and colleagues. I am truly rich in friends.
If you were to get a tattoo of one word, what would it be?
ἀλήθεια—classical Greek for “truth.”
What gives you courage?
Being well-prepared.
Ulrike Bahr-Gedalia
“If a challenge presents itself, embrace it!”
Birthplace Siegen, Germany
What age do you feel Ageless
Occupation President and CEO, Digital Nova Scotia
Book you gift most Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle by Dan Senor and Saul Singer
Favourite drink Water
Favourite place in Canada Victoria, BC
What does Canada need more of?
Canada needs a lot more “oomph” and assertiveness when it comes to promoting, acknowledging, and celebrating its successes. There’s much more to Canada than hockey and maple syrup. Many Canadians seem to know little about Canada’s technological impact and accomplishments—hence the need for a solid national awareness and branding campaign.
What will it take for more girls to go into STEM and rise to leadership positions?
I would like to start off by adding the A to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) as we continually see the importance of arts in this sector.
Based on experience, I would say it starts at home. A lot of youth grow up with the false perception that STEAM is difficult or “nerdy,” and therefore “less acceptable.” We need to teach our children that STEAM is the future. Children should learn to pursue something they are truly passionate about and enjoy, regardless of the sector or field, but we need to inform them of all the options and possibilities, and support them accordingly. These lessons need to be offered throughout K–12 and also emphasized in the media, as well as in the toys and clothes we are surrounded by daily. Movies and video games have to give equal screen time to female leading characters as doctors, scientists, engineers, and technicians to ensure a healthy ratio of female to male representation, and the political landscape, in terms of leadership, has to follow suit.
I am often told that there are fewer girls and women in STEAM because there are fewer female role models. While this might be true in some cases, it can also be an easy excuse. If you step up to the plate, there’s already one more!
If you were to write a book, what would its title be?
The TEAM in STEAM: Acknowledging the Power in People.
What have you learned about risk and creativity?
As Albert Einstein once said, “The one who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. Those who walk alone are likely to find themselves in places no one has ever been before.” I have no fear of the unknown—in fact, I welcome it. With my diverse background, I’ve learned that the easiest, most effective way to overcome difficult situations or unfamiliar environments is to approach them with an open mind, curiosity, a positive outlook, and a good sense of humour, while remaining highly adaptive and self-assessing often. We must be less risk-averse, as the biggest risk is not taking any risk at all.
Tell us about a time when you had to summon all of your courage.
Upon finishing my MA, I met my future husband in Houston. Together we decided to move to his home country, Israel, known to be the IT start-up nation. Only a few weeks into the move, I landed my first IT job with a networking company. The sudden transition from Film and Philology to Information Technology—overnight!—definitely required a lot of courage, resilience, and perseverance! I had to adapt and learn quickly. I had no idea of what it might mean to jump into IT, but the headhunter who’d found me the job said my go-getter attitude, global experience, and multilingual capabilities (German, English, French, and Spanish—I added Hebrew and Dutch later) would be immense assets to the growing, ever-expanding IT sector. She explained that it doesn’t really matter what industry you are in, because with the right mindset and attitude you can do anything.
This transition changed my life. I’ve never looked back. I learned early on that skills and knowledge are transferable. If a challenge presents itself, embrace it!
If you were to get a tattoo of one word, what would it be?
No tattoos for me ever, but I’d proudly engrave a beautiful big rock in my yard with the word “Impact.”
Nini Baird
“Just because you’ve never done it before, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take it on. If you think you can do it, you can.”
Place of Birth San Francisco, CA
What age do you feel I don’t think of myself as any age at all, and my hope is that my continued community engagement in the public and private sector into my 80s will inspire others
Occupation Chair of 3 boards: Knowledge Network Corporation, TELUS Vancouver Community Board, TELUS Fund
Book you gift most Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s Gift from the Sea (1967 ed.)
Favourite drink A glass of white wine
Favourite place in Canada Vancouver
How has your view of feminism changed over your lifetime?
From an early age I had positive role models and operated with the expectation that I would be valued as an individual. I’ve observed that women dominate the arts—as agents, managers, promoters—because they tend to be nurturers and work well with creative people in a non-competitive, supportive way.
What does success mean to you?
I have treasured the many opportunities I have had to innovate as an entrepreneur in the public and the private sector. I’m inclined to be a trailblazer, taking on challenges and leaping “off into the unknown,” spurred by an abundance of energy and curiosity, a “Pollyanna” attitude (it helps), and a strong belief that it will all “emerge.”
What has been a defining moment in your personal or professional life?