:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Ladies and gentlemen of the committee, thank you for this opportunity to provide my comments on the subject of improving economic prospects for Canadian girls. I hope my comments will be helpful as you continue the study of this important issue.
Although I'm not an expert in the field, as a woman and a mother of three girls and one boy and a business leader, I have some experience to draw from. As CEO of Canada's second-largest credit union, where 72% of our workforce is made up of women, I feel strongly that all levels of our organization should reflect the composition of our workforce and our community.
Last year Coast Capital was named the top organization in Canada by Catalyst for the highest percentage of women in senior executive roles in Canada, with 70% of our executives being women. It's also worth noting that 40% of our board directors and 45% of our leaders below the senior executive are women. We've done this not only because it's the right thing to do, but also because it makes good business sense to have diverse teams.
With that context in mind, I'd like to focus on four areas that I believe are important in improving the prospects of young women in Canada, namely education, financial literacy, internships, and business leadership. Again, coming from an organization that values all types of diversity, I believe my suggestions are applicable not only for young women but also young men in Canadian society.
Starting with education and my own experience, having lived and been educated in three countries, I can say that there is nothing more vital than a strong education for the advancement of young women. While our education system has done great things for our country, I believe strongly that we need to do more to position our young women for success in the 21st century.
Much has been said about the need for greater focus on math and sciences, particularly for young women in high school, and I agree with this position. That said, I believe we're also missing an opportunity to prepare our youth to compete in what will be a radically changed world economic order.
The rise of east and south Asia and Latin America as global economic powerhouses is no longer a possibility; it is a given. Canada, with its rich cultural heritage and historical and increasing ties to Asia, has huge potential to thrive in this new world order, yet our education system, in my experience, has not been sufficiently flexible to recognize and capitalize on this changing tide.
With four children in the school system, I have been concerned that our curriculum, at least in B.C., has not changed substantially in 30 years. History and languages are still oriented toward our European heritage, yet more than 27% of British Columbians were born outside Canada, and more than half of those came from Asia or the Middle East.
We are competing against countries like Australia, where children have the ability to learn Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, and Japanese starting at much earlier ages than when Canadian children typically start to learn a second language. Our history courses typically focus on Europe, and while To Kill a Mockingbird is a wonderful novel, which most people in this room probably studied in grade 10, why are we not looking at the rich cultural and historical literature of countries like China, India, and Japan?
In short, our education system, which should offer the perfect opportunity for young women to learn and think globally, is too narrow in its focus. If we are to prepare Canadian youth to capitalize on the new global realities, our curricula will have to change to reflect those realities. We need to encourage and offer more opportunities for young people to live and learn abroad, we need Canadian curricula to be broader and offer second-language opportunities earlier, and we need to comprehensively expose our children to the history, culture, and economies of the new world. As Canada's population changes and becomes more diverse, this type of education will benefit our children at home and abroad.
I'd like to turn now to my second area of focus, which is again in the realm of education, but in the arena of financial literacy. I was very pleased to see the federal government's focus on financial literacy for Canadians. Given the historical debt loads of Canadians and a volatile world, this is an important topic, and one that all Canadians should be concerned about.
Today we should be educating both women and men to be financially literate at younger ages and to understand the opportunities and pitfalls of finance. They should understand the benefits of saving early, budgeting, and the appropriate use of credit. While financial institutions and other worthy organizations, such as Junior Achievement, have provided some support, given Canadian debt loads and our generally inadequate preparation for retirement, my sense is we're not consistently teaching financial literacy at an early enough age.
As women still tend to be secondary income earners in general, it is crucial that we teach them how to be financially literate and financially independent from an early age.
Turning to youth internship and leadership experiences, I believe this is also a vital way that businesses and governments can help young women develop the leadership, team-playing, networking, and public speaking skills that are critical tools in whatever career paths they choose.
At Coast, our community leadership strategy is to build a richer future for youth in our communities, and this targets youth aged 13 to 24. It's not just about donating money to non-profits; we believe we have an obligation to help the youth in our communities gain leadership and business experience.
We have a wonderful program that I believe is unique in Canada. It annually gives 25 to 30 grade 11 and grade 12 students training in financial services and leadership experience. Through the Coast community youth team program, these students train and work in our branches, but they also help organize and participate in Coast community events. This gives them not only valuable work skills, but also public speaking and leadership experience at an early age.
We have had over 300 students graduate from the program. Several alumni are now full-time employees at Coast in various roles, while others have gone on to pursue careers that require strong financial knowledge and skills. We've also recently introduced a youth advisory council to help deliberate on and allocate a portion of our Community Giving dollars. At Coast we donate 7% of our budgeted pre-tax profit to the communities in which we operate; over $22 million has been invested by Coast over the last five years, so the dollars that are being allocated are quite significant.
The youth council has to carefully analyze proposals to ensure they fit with our giving objectives. Even though this program is new, the feedback on it has been overwhelmingly positive. The participants gain knowledge on business philanthropy and the important role it plays in developing communities. They also gain critical thinking and analysis skills.
Other companies and governments can also help support young girls and boys by sponsoring youth programs or developing their own in-house youth initiatives.
Finally, my fourth area of focus is business leadership. It's important that we help young girls build their self-esteem, encourage them to aim higher in their career choices, and pursue higher education, but we also need to change so that women can better thrive in the workplace. If we don't make significant changes now and help remove the barriers many young women face in the workplace, they will see a disconnect between their expectations and reality and end up being discouraged early in their careers.
Today, as I think we all know, it's still very hard for women to reach the C-suite. While women have made some progress, we still have a long way to go in reaching parity with men. According to a Catalyst survey, women head up only 6% of Canada's Financial Post 500 companies, and, astoundingly, more than 30% of Canadian companies had zero female officers in 2010.
This may be partly due to the continuance of the glass ceiling; however, more and more I honestly believe that many capable young women are opting out before reaching their full potential in their careers because the workplace is not meeting their expectations, either in terms of providing stimulating, meaningful work environments or in enabling them to balance other important aspects of their lives. Business leaders need to change this.
As an industry that employs a large female cohort, credit unions have been very supportive in developing women. While the large Canadian banks have yet to have a woman in their top position, three of the largest five credit unions in Canada have a female CEO, and the CEO of Canada's largest cooperative financial institution is also a very capable woman.
Why is this? Credit unions were created on the principle of members helping members, with a deep-rooted belief in inclusiveness and diversity in the workplace. At Coast this is certainly true. Our employee commitment is to change the way employees feel about work forever, just as our business purpose is to change the way Canadians feel about banking forever. We are very committed to fostering an innovative work environment where everyone can achieve success, regardless of gender, culture, or age.
We also offer very supportive programs to make it easier for our staff to balance work and life challenges. Such programs include wellness programs, flexible work schedules, and return-to-work schedules for those coming back from parental or personal leaves. All of these initiatives are necessary to ensure a diverse workforce that will be engaged and able to do their best.
I'd like to close with the following comments: as government and business leaders, it's important that we create environments where young women can gain the necessary skill sets for the 21st century and thrive in this new economic order. We can do more to help support young women through earlier, creative internships and business experiences that help build self-confidence and skills. Finally, we must look at ways to remove barriers that prevent women from contributing at all levels of our society.
I'd like to thank the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women for the opportunity to comment on the economic prosperity of young women, and I look forward to reading the final report when it's completed.
Thank you.
:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good afternoon. It's an honour to be before the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. As indicated, I am the chair, president, and CEO of the Chubb Insurance Company of Canada. In Canada, Chubb is a private property and casualty insurance company. We have four offices across the country and we employ 420 staff in those offices.
We usually fall around 350th on the Financial Post 500 list. We have about $2.5 billion under asset management, and our top-line revenue was $670 million at the end of last year, so that gives you a little perspective on the size of the firm.
We serve clients through a broker distribution channel, and it's in three specialty areas: the higher net worth personal lines business; executive liability products, which are things like directors' and officers' insurance; and commercial property and casualty business. We're part of the Chubb Corporation, which is one of the world's largest property and casualty organizations. As Ms. Redies mentioned, we're also a proud recipient of the Catalyst Award, which we received several years ago for our work in the advancement of executive female talent within the organization.
To also give you a little perspective about what I'm sharing with you and hoping to contribute, I am currently a permanent resident in Canada, having arrived in 2004 to assume the job of just president and CEO; the chairmanship was added two years later. I'm in the process of applying for Canadian citizenship, which I'm very hopeful of obtaining.
I began working with Chubb while I was still in university. At that time probably about 10% of the university population were women in my training class. The company, as an insurance company, has a reputation for fairness, integrity, and inclusion, all of which are attributes that serve a diverse set of constituents at the staff, client, and importantly, community service level, so my comments to the committee are around my leadership positions within my company and my community.
My experiences involving the development of women are varied, and they also include being the mother of two young adult daughters.
I have been a past member of our corporation's women's development council, which is now 25 years old. It was established to be certain that women at Chubb were receiving the right developmental opportunities to advance into senior positions at the firm. Our company has been an early adopter of the idea of improving business results through the engagement of all talent available, so we found it very logical to retain, develop, and promote the best talent in our industry by creating development programs specifically geared toward women so that we would have them ready in equal numbers to their male counterparts to enter into management ranks.
Management at Chubb is encouraging the promotion of the current mission of the council, which exists today, and I'm now an adviser to that council. The mission is “reach up, reach out, and reach down”, and to work with women within the company, within our industry, and with the communities we serve to support women at all levels.
In addition to our internal organizations, I have had the opportunity in various capacities to work with women's leadership groups across Canada and the U.S. A hallmark of our company is to be an active participant in the communities we serve through philanthropy and charitable giving. I've had the distinct pleasure of being personally involved in, and involving others in, leadership in important Canadian organizations. Some of these are specific to the development of young women leaders. They include Junior Achievement, which is in the classroom at the middle and high school level, and I've been involved in the development of executive talent in other organizations as well.
Each organization continues to be concerned that not enough progress has been made to have women positioned for larger jobs in the area of their expertise. Women are not advancing at numbers anywhere close to those of men, leaving us with less diverse management across all sectors of academia, business, and government.
There is research that suggests initiatives have stalled or reached a plateau. It is particularly acute in industry: women are graduating in equal percentages from commerce and MBA programs at university, but by the time they should be ready for executive or senior positions in their area, there still appears to be a pipeline issue.
Both our corporation in Canada and the global corporation, as I have indicated, have been very active with Catalyst, the global research firm, for many years. I sit on the Canadian advisory board of Catalyst, and as I believe Ms. Redies was suggesting, on March 8 of this year the most recent consensus on women's positioning on boards and in senior leadership was released, indicating little positive movement has been attained in the advancement of female representation. Catalyst is one of several organizations, including government agencies, reviewing how to produce better outcomes, so I'm quite pleased that this is on the status of women committee's agenda.
My work with the Women's Leadership Board at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University suggests some progress is being made in academia and in governments across the globe, but is still surprisingly low, considering it is 2012. Chubb is also a supporter of Carleton University's women in public policy initiative and its leadership curriculum for improving skills for public service. While this program is gender neutral, there are advocacy and development initiatives for women in public service that are specific.
In Toronto I am currently chairing the International Women's Forum. This is a global network of women across practices, geographies, and demographics who support one another. It has an annual fellowship program for the development of mid-level women for the next big position in their field, and the Toronto chapter is also piloting work in the area of pipeline creation for women on boards of directors.
While I do not have the same level of prescription that Ms. Redies offered, I certainly support the four areas she identifies. I do believe we have to continue to improve education in our elementary and secondary school systems in both genders. Financial literacy is a key of one of the organizations that I'm a part of, Junior Achievement, and it is bringing that curriculum into the classroom.
I also believe we need programming for young girls and high school-level and university-level women that is specific to the unique positions in their careers as they balance family and other choices that are unique to them as a gender.
In sum, while the statistics are not yet showing in the corporate executive suite or the boardroom, I think a great number of areas in education and government are continuing to look at this issue, and much optimism is to be expected.
I thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today; I look forward to answering any questions you may have.
:
Thank you. Can everyone hear me all right?
Let me think. I've been in financial services for about 23 years now, and it's hard to believe it's been that long. I said to one of the members that it's not the years but the mileage that gets you.
I obviously have worked in a very male-dominated industry. I was with HSBC for 20 years prior to coming to the credit unions. People ask me this question of what challenges I've faced, but in general, I've had a fairly supportive career in my life. HSBC was very good in terms of providing mentorship, I think recognizing at an early age that I had a lot of drive and desire to continue to move up in the organization. I was quite fortunate in that regard.
I was also brought up in a family in which both my brother and my sisters were told they could do anything they wanted as long as we worked hard, so I really never had the mentality that I couldn't get ahead.
That said, I think men and women do things differently in the workplace. I think one of the challenges a lot of women have—I experienced this too, learning—is that they have a tendency to believe that if they do something and they do well, these things will be noticed and they'll get ahead. The reality is that's not always the case.
I think probably most of us have learned in our careers that networking is a very important aspect of corporate advancement. I don't know how to teach that; I think it's something you start to learn over time.
The other thing, too, that was helpful for me is that I did work on some very important initiatives with the bank at an early age—the diversity committee, etc. I took on projects nobody else wanted to do, so I guess that helped. I do believe I probably worked harder; I probably had to make more trade-offs in many respects.
I think that's actually an important point that gets missed here. For any man or woman today to get to the C-suite, to be successful in a career, you're talking about trade-offs of time with family or other pursuits, etc. I mentioned in my comments—and I've really seen this in my last three years with the credit union—that part of the challenge today is that a lot of capable women are opting out earlier than their potential should suggest. Frankly, they don't think it's worth it to put in the time and to make the trade-offs.
At the end of the day, you work hard and you work long hours in whatever field you choose to do. You have to believe that what you're doing is meaningful; it makes sense for you, and you're part of something larger, part of a purpose.
This was one of the reasons we at Coast took on a purpose to change the way Canadians feel about banking forever. It was something lofty and aspirational that all of our staff could get behind, something about which they could feel that they could make a difference. I think that's actually one of the keys for progressive organizations going forward.
We don't have any special diversity programs at Coast, yet we have one of the best, most diverse workforces in terms of women and boards in the country. Again, there are no special diversity programs; what we have is a desire to make sure we have an inclusive environment where everybody can bring their best to work and be part of something they believe in. I think progressive organizations going forward have to think like this if they are going to try to attract more women at the top.
Women, I think, actually have more to give up, whether it's family or other things. There are more expectations that they will give that up.
It's a bit of a convoluted answer. Again, I've made trade-offs over my life that I felt were appropriate. I had two daughters early on—three daughters now—and I want to make sure they understand that you can have a family and a career at the same time. I worked very hard for it, but I'm not sure if every woman would do what I did.
At the end of the day, if we want to continue to attract women and retain top talent, we need to provide workplaces that make it easy for them both to contribute and to manage family and other personal interests.
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Good afternoon, everyone. I would first like to thank you for inviting us to appear before this committee. My name is Jocelyne Michelle Coulibaly and I am a grade 12 student at the Collège catholique Franco-Ouest in Ottawa. I am currently completing a specialist high skills major in justice, and I am also an elected member of the Conseil de représentation de la Fédération de la jeunesse franco-ontarienne, the FESFO. I would also like to introduce Geneviève Latour, who is the manager of the programming team at the FESFO and is in charge of social justice programs.
The FESFO was created in 1975 to call for Franco-Ontario youth to be given a place and resources. The FESFO is the representative organization for 25,000 francophone youth who attend one of the 92 French-language secondary schools in Ontario. It is led by a provincial youth council elected by students, and provides youth with information, raises their awareness and mobilizes them so their voices and needs are heard by the various decision-makers.
Every year, nearly 11,000 young leaders participate in a variety of training placements or cultural animation days in the schools organized by the FESFO. Some of the FESFO's activities are designed to help young people discover their Franco-Ontarian identity and combat assimilation, while providing young leaders from all over Ontario with the tools they need.
The FESFO takes a feminist approach, which is recognized as a winning practice by everyone who works with youth and women. In fact, the FESFO has been approached by the UN to develop a series of manuals as part of the "A World of Difference" project. The manuals deal with issues that include violence, sexism, racism, communication and conflict resolution.
As well, this inclusive and welcoming approach means that girls who belong to the FESFO feel involved, and participate in large numbers in cultural activities and benefit from the political opportunities offered by the federation. Girls represent 60 per cent of participants, on average, both at activities and events and in positions of responsibility within the federation.
The mission of the FESFO is to ensure that Franco-Ontarian youth participate fully in the development of their community. To achieve this, young people have to be able to take advantage of opportunities that enable them to discover their identity; to realize the role that girls need to play in their community in order to define, evaluate and improve it; to have memorable positive experiences in French with other young people so they will be more open to the world; to play their role as francophones in their community; to engage in self-affirmation as Franco-Ontarians; and to take a position by engaging in self-affirming acts as francophones.
As well, and in particular when it comes to the status of women, the FESFO believes that investing in girls is investing in the economic and social well-being of society. Today, with the necessary skills, in their language, they are in a position to exercise leadership and to contribute to initiatives that are developed by and for them and that reflect their lives and their needs.
In 2004, for example, the FESFO created a tool to help girls position themselves and exercise leadership, after participating in a general assembly on the development of services in French relating to violence against women. One of the things the charter of rights for Franco-Ontarian students calls for is equality, the right of girls to be respected and to receive services in French. It also sets out, for example, the need to have and be an accessible model, the need to have access to self-affirmation workshops, and the need to know that boys are also part of the solution.
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To provide for the well-being of its members, the FESFO also organizes a number of activities in French on self-awareness, which help to create a safe environment at school and in the community. Workshops on subjects like self-affirmation or the need to talk to one another encourage an open and honest dialogue among students, and this leads to a healthy and positive community in the school.
The FESFO's statement of principle on violence against women cites the fact that young women face a variety of challenges. Without appropriate tools to overcome them, they can feel alone or inadequate.
This is the situation they may find themselves in, in dependent and unhealthy relationships that too often lead to violence. We have to work with them to create spaces where they can talk about choices, rights, decision-making and influences at this precise point in their lives. It is especially important that resources be offered to them in their language, in French, in our case.
The way they will succeed in having positive, healthy relationships, with everyone they meet, is if they are supported in making choices, informed about their rights and equipped with a network of friends who have a common vocabulary they can use to name, to try and to act.
While the federation's expertise lies in community and identity development for Franco-Ontarian youth, the FESFO sees a direct link between the well-being of girls, their relationships with their peers and their commitment and economic prosperity.
For 20 years, to support girls in their identity development and help them exercise leadership, the FESFO has offered awareness-raising workshops in French such as the one on self-affirmation, which was developed by and for Franco-Ontarian girls, and whose objective is to create a positive climate of trust that encourages discussions about the various things experienced by adolescents.
These workshops help participants to better determine and formulate their personal limits, by equipping them with various affirmation techniques, in addition to creating a network of young women who will be able to raise awareness among their friends and help to establish a helping culture. The workshops also validate the unique experiences of each participant, and provide them with resources for making concrete changes in their personal lives.
The workshops are led by facilitators from the network of facilitators who are experienced and sensitive to the issues involved in the status of women, including violence against women. These facilitators in fact provide accessible francophone models for the girls who take part in the workshops.
The girls who attend the self-affirmation workshops have quickly realized the need to work with boys to combat violence against women and ensure that there women have their fair place in society. To meet this need, the FESFO has developed workshops about the need to talk to one another, whose objective is to have students spend a day in a mixed group to discuss violence against women in their community and promote healthy, equal relationships between men and women.
The participants ultimately become part of the solution rather than part of the problem. They work together as a group to prepare a presentation for the other students in the school, to explain the challenge that violence in their environment presents and the possible solutions the group has identified over the course of the day. The workshop provides the boys and girls with an opportunity to discuss healthy relationships and meets the need to include boys in the discussion about girls exercising leadership.
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In the activities described by Geneviève, the consultations and the general programming of the FESFO in recent years, certain messages have rung out clearly. These are the five recommendations that the FESFO is making to the committee today.
First, we have to provide a space for girls to come together. Those are the times when they have a chance to talk in confidence about the issues that matter to them, to share the challenges they encounter in their everyday lives, and to develop support networks they will be able to turn to later on.
All of this helps girls to take a leadership role, by offering them an opportunity to understand the role they must play in their environment and providing them with support so they are better able to define, evaluate and improve it. It also ensures that the solutions and future avenues that are imagined are truly by and for the girls.
Second, it is important to present accessible models of women who can inspire girls to believe in themselves, to value the various aspects of the people they are, and to want to participate actively in the world around them. By being exposed to a variety of women who are active in various fields, showing how they exercise leadership and contribute to the well-being of society, girls can become aware of their potential by taking responsibility for their personal well-being, but also of their role as agents of change today.
Third, it is important to recognize that boys are part of the equation and the solution. While it is essential to have spaces that are set aside for girls, girls themselves recognize the need to know that the boys among their fellow students are part of the solution.
In the spirit of the Charte des droits des élèves franco-ontariennes, some authors said that there needed to be times for awareness-raising, discussion and joint action with boys. In fact, in the mixed workshops on healthy relationships, the girls are very glad to have an opportunity to talk about violence against women with the boys, to make them see how they feel and what they consider to be violence, and to find solutions together. It is important for them to talk about solutions by and for young people.
Fourth, in the many consultations the federation holds, Franco-Ontarian youth have reiterated the need for training about financial literacy in French. It is important for them to feel that they have the tools and they have access to the resources that will enable them to continue to contribute at their full potential outside the four wall of the school, and once they leave secondary school. They are aware that financial matters are crucial, to enable them to achieve full democratic, social and economic participation.
And last, it is essential to expand and develop programs to reduce sexual harassment. Full participation by girls in democratic, social and economic life is closely tied to their ability to exercise leadership and to the obstacles that violence against women creates.
To do that, it is important to recognize and—