What message would you put on a billboard, and where?
“Persevere” in schools.
Vicki Saunders
“The world needs more Canada. And Canada needs to boldly share its dreams, out loud.”
Birthplace Ottawa, ON
What age do you feel Ageless
Occupation Founder, SheEO
Book you gift most Astonishing the Gods by Ben Okri
Favourite drink Water
Favourite place in Canada Munster, ON
If you could have dinner with any woman, alive or dead, who would it be?
I would like to have dinner going back seven generations with the women in my family. My mother created a book of all the women who came before me in my family and as we went through it together, we wondered what they would have become in a different era. I would love to hear their hopes and dreams and imagine how different the world would have been if they’d been free to be.
If you had the gift of a year off, in a paused world, what would you work on?
I would simply be. I would breathe. I would slow down and journal every day and reflect and walk and sit and be with people listening deeply to their dreams and their fears and I would write endlessly to understand the wisdom I’ve been gathering... and then when you pushed Play again, I’d share it. I love to teach.
What has become more important to you in the last few years?
I have become an almost evangelical supporter of human potential, of women’s innovations, and of designing a world that works for all. I am deeply committed to supporting women innovators on their own terms and creating a community of radically generous women. I have finally found a way to focus on creating a new world instead of fixing the old world.
What message would you put on a billboard?
“Everything is broken. What a great time to be alive.”
What have you learned about generosity since launching SheEO, a call to action and a movement around #radicalgenerosity?
I have learned that generosity (giving) and gratitude (receiving) are the in-breath and the out-breath. You need both or you are out of balance. I have learned that I am a master at giving, but I haven’t been great at receiving from others and I see that in many women in our network. It’s time for us to receive each other’s wisdom and each other’s help, so that we can be more than we ever dreamed possible. I like to ask: How would you act differently if you were surrounded by radically generous people? How would you act differently if you were radically generous to yourself?
What will it take to achieve gender parity?
Culture change of the highest order. We need to radically transform our mindset and culture to reflect that all beings are meant to thrive and reach their potential.
What does being Canadian mean to you?
Canada is my home and my grounding. It represents a potential that hasn’t yet been met. And I believe that our time is now. Canada is emerging as a beacon of another possibility for the world, one that is more inclusive and open and fair.
What are the characteristics of the people you keep closest?
They are down-to-earth, wise, curious, open souls who recognize that we are all doing our best and have no idea what this human thing is really all about, and they are okay with that.
What is the best investment you’ve made?
I have mentored over a thousand change-making entrepreneurs, creators, and dreamers in the past twenty-five years. The energy that I put into that will have a far greater impact than I ever could’ve had on my own.
What gives you courage?
All the amazing entrepreneurs and activators I surround myself with. Their persistence and determination and support helps me to keep going.
What does success mean to you?
Living each day to the fullest and staying grounded in radical generosity. It’s a practice that helps me to feel happier and healthier.
If you were to get a tattoo of one word, what would it be?
The infinity symbol.
Gabrielle Scrimshaw
“I’m really proud to call myself a feminist and an activist.”
Birthplace La Ronge, SK
What age do you feel 29
Occupation Indigenous entrepreneur, activist, speaker
Book you gift most The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King
Favourite drink My morning latte
Favourite place in Canada Big River, SK
How has your view of feminism changed over your lifetime?
I would like “feminism” to be more of an accepted term. People are sometimes hesitant about it. I used to think of a feminist the same way I thought about the word “activist.” For me, it had negative connotations. Today, I’m really proud to call myself an activist and a feminist.
When I think of corporate Canada and corporate America, women are trying to climb ladders in institutions that in many ways weren’t designed for them to succeed in. You think of the way these systems were built. That’s why, for me, entrepreneurship is such an exciting space because you can build an organization from the ground up that is inclusive and diverse and takes in the needs and wants of women right from the beginning. It’s like a new system that can be designed for people from all backgrounds to succeed in.
What has been a defining moment in your personal or professional life?
It was the summer between my first and second year of university. I was socializing with some people I’d just met and one young man who was applying to the RCMP said something racist about Indigenous people. About half of the group knew that I am First Nations and no one said anything. I actually felt a level of shame and didn’t say anything. I remember carrying the weight of that moment for so long. When I talked to my sister about it, she responded, “You know, Gabrielle, who cares about how you felt in that moment. This guy was applying to become a police officer. What if he does become an RCMP officer and he’s out there with these views about Indigenous people? You had a responsibility in that moment to let him know that was not okay and you should have said something.”
I was young at the time, nineteen years old. And I realized that not only do the things I do and say matter, but also the things that I don’t do or don’t say have consequences. That was the moment when I started to summon my courage and stand up for what I believed was right.
What gives you courage?
An elder in the community once told me that I am the product of thousands of years of strength and courage. So whenever I do anything that is scary, I always remember that, and it reminds me that I’m never really alone on my journey.
Tell us about your viral New York Times article.
That was easily the most difficult thing I’ve ever written in my life. It took several weeks and what I’ve learned from it is that there is power in vulnerability. There is power in sharing your story.
Canada’s 150 was this milestone and I saw it building a lot of momentum. In my work with the non-profit organization and in the media and commenting on reconciliation, I realized that I grew up without a mom because of the legacies of residential schools. I can’t explain to you how hard it is knowing that a mother’s love is something you’ve never had and you’ve always wanted. And while I wanted to celebrate the country, I also wanted to recognize that a lot of people paid a price along the way and not many people talk about it. My hope was to shed light on the true history of the country that we were celebrating.
I’m also very hopeful and optimistic. I believe that people have good intentions and that none of us were in the room when these policies were being made all those years ago. Now we have an opportunity to make things better over the next 150 years. But the only way to do that is to understand where we’ve come from and the decisions that led us to this moment.
What will it take to achieve gender parity?
A recognition that today gender parity doesn’t exist. Although we’ve made a lot of progress over the last several decades, if we continue at the same pace, we won’t
have gender parity or equality for over a hundred years in most industries. I think we should say, “Celebrate the success we’ve had, but recognize that we have so much further to go.” What that takes is a brave look at institutions and organizations and saying, “What more can we do to make this better?” Given we’ve made some progress, some people think we’ve “made it” when we still have a really long way to go.
If you were to get a tattoo of one word, what would it be?
“Persist.”
Dorothy Shaw
“Canada as a country is a beacon of hope for the world.”
Birthplace Blackburn, England
What age do you feel 45
Occupation Vice President, Medical Affairs, BC Women’s Hospital and Health Centre
Book you gift most The World of Pooh by A.A. Milne
Favourite drink Pernod and water
Favourite place in Canada Vancouver
How has your view of feminism changed over your lifetime?
When I was a young medical student, from 1967 to 1972, women were still typically confined to lower paying careers, if indeed they worked outside of home. Mine was the first generation where the social norms began to shift. Contraception became legal in the UK and Canada, including for unmarried women, while I was in medical school. Women were then able to make choices about their lives that were not easily possible before.
Today in Canada, feminism is about autonomy, agency, and choice, as well as gender equity and reaching parity at the tables of power and decision-making. Globally, it is about any woman being free to follow her own path in life without constraint by social or legal barriers based on her sex or gender. Feminism is not the sole responsibility of women, and in fact requires participation of men who understand and support societal change to have women meaningfully able to exercise their autonomy. The recent walks around the world by women and supportive men make me optimistic about progress.
Tell us about a time when you had to summon all of your courage.
I was newly graduated from medical school and the house officer on a medical ward in Edinburgh. It was 1972. Women were beginning to wear pants socially, but in the traditional hierarchy of medicine, men wore suits and women wore dresses or skirts. It made more sense (to me) to wear pants on the ward, but the consultant in charge was a bit of a curmudgeon at times. Before I summoned the courage to ask him, I first asked the sister in charge of the ward for advice. She was in favour, so she backed me up when I asked him at tea-time, and he agreed without hesitation—ground-breaking change at the time.
What message would you put on a billboard?
“Listen to what is said and left unsaid, then seek to be understood.”
What does being Canadian mean to you?
Canada has been my home for the last forty-two years. Being Canadian for me means respect for everyone who lives here, celebrating our different cultures, enjoying the vast natural beauty that our country has to offer, being able to access education and health care, and learning how we can work with Indigenous people to repair intergenerational trauma and participate in a positive future.
Brigitte Shim
“If we knew everything about what we were getting into in advance, we might never start any journey.”
Birthplace Kingston, Jamaica
What age do you feel I still feel like a kid, always curious, exploring, and experimenting with new ideas
Occupation Architect, professor
Favourite drink Water
Favourite place in Canada Georgian Bay, ON
If you could have dinner with any woman, alive or dead, who would it be?
Three remarkable women who have shaped our physical environment in Canada: Phyllis Lambert, Blanche Van Ginkel, and Cornelia Oberlander. They are all living legends and have committed their lives to improving the “built” world around us, as well as educating and inspiring the next generation of designers. At her ninetieth birthday party, Phyllis Lambert declared, “You must put up buildings which express the best of the society in which you live.”
Tell us about a time when you had to summon all of your courage.
As young architects, my partner and collaborator, Howard Sutcliffe, and I wanted to transform a left-over, derelict lot full of abandoned cars in an urban back alleyway into a home. The local planner wrote a letter to the local planning authority letting us know that he was concerned the quality of our life would be adversely affected by living in a laneway. We ended up at a provincial planning authority, which required many expert witnesses. The final judgement stated that laneway housing was an untapped resource and should be encouraged. We have lived in a back alley for over two decades and created a humane oasis in the largest city in Canada. We are still working on shifting public and planning opinion about the possibility of intensifying the system of laneways in Toronto and other cities in North America that exists within our own backyards. Laneway housing in Toronto is a work in progress, and an unfinished project with enormous potential to densify the largest urban city in our country through an incremental urbanism.
What message would you put on a billboard?
I saw a sign that was part of the Idle No More First Nations movement that I found timely and poignant. It said, “Sorry for the incon-venience. We are trying to change the world.”
What is your vision for Canada in twenty years?
Canada needs to rewrite the story of its founding. We must respect and value the founding First Nations who have occupied this land for thousands of years. They were joined by English and French settlers, along with numerous waves of immigrants from around the world. Together, we are all shaping a new country that benefits from the physical and human resources of the Dominion of Canada.
Molly Shoichet
“Canada needs more chutzpah—we need to be more outgoing, more willing to take risks, more willing to fail.”
Birthplace Toronto, ON
Occupation Professor, University of Toronto
Book you gift most All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Favourite drink Water
Favourite place in Canada Toronto
If you could have dinner with any woman, alive or dead, who would it be?
Cheryl Sandberg (COO, Facebook), to get a better understanding of how she has achieved success in a male-dominated industry and spurned racism and sexism; Hillary Clinton, to learn how she has dealt with challenges in her professional, public, and personal life; Angela Merkel, to understand the challenges she has overcome in Europe; and Andrea Ghez (professor, UCLA) —she is one of my closest friends, but we don’t see each other enough and she has been very successful in research and academic leadership.
What will it take to achieve gender parity?
We need to start by raising our sons and daughters to value women in careers. We need intentional leadership by men and women to provide leadership opportunities for women. Nothing just happens. Change only happens when we make it happen. To achieve gender parity, we need to make it a priority. We have to encourage women to stay in the game, to pursue careers, and to get up when they’ve been knocked down.
If you had the gift of a year off, in a paused world, what would you work on?
I am very passionate about research, its communication and its commercialization. In research, we are developing strategies to overcome blindness, stroke, and spinal cord injury with cell therapy. In science communication, we launched a national social media campaign, Research2Reality, that shines a spotlight on innovative Canadian research. In science commercialization, we started a company, Hammock Therapeutics, to advance a family of inventions for the treatment of post-surgical pain. If I could pause the world, I would advance all of these initiatives. I would need many partners to succeed. Luckily, I have many of these partners and the teams to help us turn these many dreams into reality. It would be a great year but full of hard work and creativity.
What has become more important and less important to you in the last few years?
/> I try not to sweat the small things and focus instead on bigger issues—that is, I don’t worry whether something is absolutely perfect but rather think about the big picture and what is really important. What will make a difference, and how will I guide people toward greater success?
If you were to write a book, what would its title be?
Staying in the Game: Taking Risks and Inspiring Change.
Gerri Sinclair
“Success is getting up every morning and being delighted that what I’m doing is the right thing for me, in terms of my values.”
Birthplace Winnipeg, MB
What age do you feel Like I’m a millennial
Occupation Venture capitalist, strategic innovation consultant, corporate director
Book you gift most Goodnight Moon
Favourite drink Excellent red wine
Favourite place in Canada Saturna Island, BC
What will it take to achieve gender parity?
That’s tough. I’m very disappointed about how long it’s taken. I thought we had it in the bag, but it turns out that we don’t. The last frontier is the glass ceiling in the boardroom and the executive suites. It’s going to take senior women not only breaking through the glass ceiling in our own careers, but also being there for younger women who are starting out and giving them their own hammers, and the rocks, to finally shatter the glass.
Canada 150 Women_Conversations with Leaders, Champions, and Luminaries Page 23