Reflections on International Women's Day: From Generation to Generation

On International Women’s Day 2023

I am writing this while visiting my mother in Nova Scotia. She suffers from Alzheimer’s. One of her favourite pastimes is to peruse old photo albums. She beams with delight when she discovers her own image captured in film, or her name in print. It reinforces that she exists - that she matters.?

Her favourite album features friends and adventures from university. She attended St. Dunstan’s University in PEI. It was the province’s only university and also had the distinction of being the last Canadian university to admit women. Prior to 1942, 500 female students had to leave the province to attend university. Finally, sense and advocacy prevailed and women were admitted to St. Dunstan’s. They could stay in their home province to get the education they wanted.

After graduation, my mother launched her career. But, when she married, she lost her identity—having surrendered her first name to the common convention of referring to a married woman by their husband’s name prefaced by “Mrs.” Subsequently, she lost her career when she became pregnant. Practices and policies of the date, supported by many learned and influential people and institutions, discouraged, and in some instances prevented, married women from holding positions better filled by men.

Fast forward to today. My only daughter studied at an all-girls school known for its academics and in particular it’s STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) program. One hundred percent of her graduating class pursued post secondary education with a significant number pursuing careers in science, engineering, business and medicine.

Contrasting her experience to my mother’s, one might be reassured that much has changed. But when I speak to my daughter and her friends in Canadian engineering programs, I hear that they struggle. Their struggles are not academic. They report that they face ongoing stereotyping that is normalized under the broad banner of institutional culture.

I witness elements of this culture in my own field of practice in health care.

I have spent the last 30 years leading hospital foundations. Hospitals are hierarchical organizations with entrenched cultural norms, which until recently, reinforced women in supporting roles.

Health care and hospitals in particular are unique. More than 75% of all hospital employees are women. One third of professionally active physicians are women, as are 90% of home health workers. By contrast, only 19% of hospital CEOs are women.

This absence of women at the top can no longer be explained simply by discriminatory or exclusionary hiring policies, nor can it be attributed to lack of talent.

Canada’s employment laws prevent discrimination based on gender and two-thirds of employees are women. Therefore, the absence of women must be attributed to something more subtle and insidious. I believe a major contributing factor is normalized discriminatory practice reinforced by entrenched culture.

I find this empowering. It gives each and every one of Canada’s hospital employees, physicians and volunteers an opportunity to contribute to positive change.

Although culture has its roots in the past, it is strengthened and reinforced in the present. It belongs to each and every one of us. Every action, every statement we make either supports or alters institutional culture.

Each of us can practice individual responsibility for altering and bending a culture that acknowledges, promotes and rewards talent regardless of gender. Our work places and our patients will be the better for it.

Jane Adams

President and CEO

Surrey Hospitals Foundation