The past week has been all about women. Rightly so as March 8 is International Women’s Day.
First was Business in Vancouver’s Influential Women in Business Awards luncheon where each of the six honourees gave inspiring stories.
Fiona Macfarlane , from EY, talked about salt water and how being a woman trying to succeed in a man’s world was like a fresh-water trout trying to swim with the ocean-going salmon. Her solution was to work together to desalinate the water.
Renee Wasylyk, of Troika Developments, talked about how important it was to have encouraging parents. In her case it was her father telling her she could be the first female president of the United States when she came home complaining as a young child that she had memorized the names of all the US presidents and not one was female. Her dad was in fact wrong, as Renee couldn’t become president, as she was not American. But in principle he was very right.
On Thursday morning EY hosted a panel discussion as part of its Winning Women program, with Macfarlane moderating.
How can women get ahead? Macfarlane asked. “Think big and bold,” said panel member Carolyn Cross , CEO of Ondine Biomedical and one of BIV’s IWIB winners this year.
With that background it seemed a good time to look for women-related stories. And there were a few. One, from the New York Times, details a sexual-discrimination trial against a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. The suit claims, among other things, that women were excluded from events, such as ski trips or dinners because of their gender. Another involves a suit by a female analyst at Goldman Sachs claiming she was paid less than her male colleagues.
But on the positive side, local mining company Goldcorp became the first mining company to sign the Catalyst Accord aimed at lifting the percentage of women on FP 500 boards to 25% by 2017.
And a study by the Sauder School of Business at UBC has found that having women on boards can materially affect how companies do business.
To celebrate International Women’s Day, why not have ice cream. Apparently there is now a low-fat, high-protein version.
And check out Bloomberg’s happiest and most miserable places to live.
