Speaking to Power

How female leaders rose above gender to storm the glass ceiling, and what they see for the next generation

Jun 1, 2009  

by Stephanie Sparks

Hopewell Residential Communities Inc. president Lesley Conway says, “I think in the business community, we’re getting better at being mentors to those who work directly with us and others who may be in different businesses. We’re getting better, but I think we can still do more.”

Bonnie DuPont, group vice-president, corporate resources, has been with Enbridge Inc. since 1998. During that time, she has spearheaded the Women @ Enbridge initiative, designed to help the company’s female employees with their career goals.

“So many young women, after they have their second child in particular, leave the workforce. And they leave the workforce because they don’t have the support they need to remain in it. So the skills they have built up before they have children are lost to an organization.”

Women are increasing in number in executive positions and on boards, albeit slowly. To maintain this momentum, who is ultimately responsible? The established leaders or the up-and-comers? Micallef feels that senior-level women have an obligation to encourage the continuation of equality and diversity and to help women coming into business succeed. But the next generation needs to be prepared to make its own way. “Organizations are more willing to help women advance, and I think younger women should take advantage.”

Lynda Taylor, BMO Bank of Montreal’s vice-president, Edmonton district, says, “When I look at our executive ranks, we’ve gone from 9% of the women being executives when I joined 18, 19 years ago to where we’re now at 34%. But we’re never satisfied and we always think that there is more to do.”

Samarasekera notes that most of the Ivy League universities in the United States (Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Brown and the University of Pennsylvania) are run by female presidents. While the private sector has been slower to change, it won’t be long until we see “outcomes that reflect progression.”

“I don’t think we need to worry anymore about the issue of gender,” she says. “The danger of prolonging a debate around gender is that it doesn’t really serve either gender really well. You look at today’s universities, and I’m actually worried about young men. We have a much higher participation rate of women in universities, over 58%. We have a fair number of young men not finishing high school. We’re now on a trend where I think the problem is going to be the exact opposite: where we won’t have enough male leaders.”

“Not every woman in business aspires to be a leader or to be in a senior position,” adds Conway. “They are not dissimilar to men. It’s not everybody’s aspiration to be at the senior level.”

“The young women coming up today will have to take an interest and want to have the desire to lead and to help others,” says Taylor.

Dickinson views the new businesswoman as being more career-focused than ever before. “What you have is a lot of younger women who are really focused on careers first and family and fulfilling themselves personally second. I worry a little bit about this next generation, deferring that part of their life so late and so long that they miss that opportunity to learn from it as well.”

But to be career-focused or family-focused is a choice, and if there’s one thing that women have fought for, it is to have choices in all parts of their lives. Raiss says, “I’m a big believer that people should really think about what it is that they want and then go after it. If you really, really want to be a mother with children, that’s fabulous. If you really, really want to start up your own company, I think that’s fabulous. But because we’ve got so many corporations that need to be run, I would love to see more and more young women saying, ‘This is what I want.’ You have to take charge of your own development.”

While gender equality in business is improving, Taylor’s idea that there is more to do transcends gender diversity to being inclusive of age, race and religion. It takes more than luck to change outdated thinking.

“Make the statement at a table and say, ‘I don’t think we have enough gender diversity,’” says Kollman. “But I like to take that one step further and look at other visible minorities and look at other populations we need to be inclusive of. That’s the job we have going forward.”

Luck may sometimes be a lady, but these ladies didn’t need luck. They became the powerful and insightful leaders we see today. Their presence at senior levels and in boardrooms has opened the door to greater gender diversity, but they’re not stopping there, seeking instead to expand diversity throughout the business community.

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What does it take to be a female in power? What leadership skills should you possess? Listen to the University of Alberta’s Indira Samarasekera and Enbridge Inc.’s Bonnie DuPont speak to power.

Indira Samarasekera, President, University of Alberta

Bonnie DuPont, Group Vice-President, Corporate Resources, Enbridge Inc.

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