September 22 to 28, 2024, is Gender Equality Week in Canada. With its theme, “Unlocking Potential: Economic Power Through Gender Equality,” the week underscores that gender equality is essential for a thriving and equitable society.
“Gender Equality Week is an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to dismantling the barriers that prevent women and gender diverse folks from fully participating in the engineering profession,” says Philip Rizcallah, Engineers Canada CEO. “It is also a chance to consider what actions we can undertake as individuals and as organizations to bring about changes in our respective spheres of influence that will dismantle the culture of exclusion and bring greater equity, diversity, and inclusion to the engineering profession.”
For example, Engineers Canada, through its 30 by 30 initiative which aims to raise the percentage of newly licensed engineers who are women to 30 per cent by the year 2030, has united the engineering regulators, higher education institutions, engineering employers, and others behind a common goal. As part of this work, Engineers Canada produces resources that engineers, engineering employers, and others can use in fostering more inclusive environments. Gender Equality Week is an excellent opportunity to explore, or revisit, these and other resources and consider how you can take some of their learnings and best practices and apply them in your workplace.
About 30 by 30, and power and influence, Jeanette Southwood, Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Strategic Partnerships, adds “All of us can reflect deeply on the levers we can use to make change—small or large. Collaboration is key. Engineers Canada can’t make change alone. Women can’t make change alone. None of us can journey alone to 30 by 30.”
Managing Transitions
As workplaces strive to support balance, ensure healthy lives, and foster employees who can pursue their personal and career passions, it is important that the supports, communication, and understanding are in place for maternity and parental leaves. Everyone wants a safe, open, healthy, and inclusive environment. Managing Transitions presents considerations for engineers and geoscientists, their families, and their employers to navigate transitions to and back from these maternity and parental leaves.
30 by 30 Conference resources
Each year, Engineers Canada hosts the 30 by 30 Conference that brings together people across the profession who are working to advance gender equity in engineering. Some past conference sessions have recordings available, including:
- Intersectionality workshop: This interactive workshop guided participants through the history of intersectionality, exercises to understand your own positionality, and the importance of using intersectional frameworks in equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) work.
- Seeking out equity, diversity, and inclusion expertise: This webinar shared why EDI expertise is required to support culture change in the engineering profession, what to look for in hiring an EDI consultant, what consultants wish their clients knew, and how to build meaningful relationships with service providers.
- Anti-violence in the workplace: Gender-based violence is all too common in workplaces and schools, directly challenging the physical and psychological safety required to make an inclusive and equitable space. This virtual session discussed workplace violence prevention: how to go beyond the legal framework to be an anti-violence and anti-harassment workplace.
Building inclusive workplaces for 2SLGBTQ+ people
This Pride Month 2024 webinar explored how workplaces can provide a safe space for everyone, what pride looks like in engineering, and how non-2SLGBTQ+ colleagues can become allies. Moderated by Engineers Canada’s Kim Bouffard, the webinar featured Michelle Liu (iel/they/them), a Queer, Asian-Canadian, non-binary, and neurodivergent lawyer, professional engineer, speaker, and consultant, in conversation with Martine Roy (she/her), a strong advocate for 2SLGBTQ+ rights and the Regional Director, 2SLGBTQ+ Business Development Quebec & Eastern Canada for TD Bank.
Gender transition in the workplace
In 2018, Valerie Shepard, of Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, came out of the closet as a transgender woman, and navigated the complex process of transitioning in the workplace. In this webinar, she goes through her transition journey at NL Hydro to discuss the challenges trans people face in coming out at the workplace, especially in an engineering and trades environment. She also approaches current issues regarding trans inclusion, and offers suggestions for what companies can do to provide a safe and inclusive workplace.
Engineering employers, culture change, and 30 by 30
As one of its 30 by 30 resources, Engineers Canada developed a guide for engineering employers on changing the culture. Read the guide for information on direct action that can be taken in your workplace.
Guideline for engineers and engineering firms on workplace equity for women
This Canadian Engineering Qualifications Board guideline provides information and guidance that can also be used by individuals, employers, and other interest holders across Canada for enhancing women’s participation in the engineering profession. Its intended outcome is that people within engineering workplaces will have a deeper understanding of the challenges that impede women’s full participation and a clear sense of how to take action to address those challenges. Accompanying the guideline are tools and a supplement on the importance of embedding women’s lived experiences in this work.
