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Sarah Campden will speak at the Women’s Enterprise Centre workshop for business owners that are interested in growing their business. This interactive workshop was designed to help build businesses so it’s right for the owners. It will provide networking opportunities, inspiration for new ideas and provide resources to help meet business needs for growth.

On behalf of the Applied Science Technologists and Technicians, Sarah Campden will attend a roundtable session hosted by Shannon Baskerville, Assistant Deputy Minister of Labour Market and Immigration from the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation. This meeting will provide an overview of BC’s labour market conditions and look at the future with the BC Jobs Plan. Insight into key occupational forecasts relevant to the sectors in which ASTTBC and its members and stakeholders are involved will be provided and a discussion regarding human capital challenges and opportunities to help further advance job growth and prosperity in the province will take place.

Sarah Campden, CTech, Chair of ASTTBC’s BC Women In Technology (BCWiT), attended a Roundtable meeting with the Honourable Lisa Raitt, Minister of Labour; MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice; and, other members of the industry to discuss issues faced by women in the workplace.

Two other Roundtable sessions were held across Canada; one in Mississauga, Ontario and one in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Minister Raitt was impressed with attendance at this session, noting that it is an important issue for women and the economy in the province of BC.  Women often encounter barriers to their equitable participation and continue to face challenges and hazards in the workplace. Barriers such as sexism, racism and ableism (discrimination against people living with disabilities) limit women’s ability to secure good employment and reach upper-level management positions. Within the workplace, women are at risk of harassment and in some cases, violence. Women also have a higher incidence of disability resulting from workplace injury than men. Sarah commented for this report that in a survey conducted by ASTTBC in 2009, female technologists, technicians and technical specialists in applied science and engineering technology did not have the same difficulties as may be felt in some other fields. About 35% of ASTTBC member respondents indicated that they face some ‘challenges’ being a woman in a male dominated field. For the full survey results: http://www.asttbc.com/careers/wit/documents/WITSurveyReport.pdf.

At the Roundtable, views were expressed by participants on these issues. Minister Raitt was particularly interested in hearing from the participants about their concerns in this area, the challenges faced, and best practices in mitigating these challenges. Other issues that were of interest to the participants were the skills shortage facing BC, the lack of women in senior leadership roles, and the lack of women in media in these types of roles.

Interesting information from the participants:

• In the Law profession, one third of women leave the industry in the first five years.
• Definition of success for women is very different from that of men; women tend to want to help others and achieve success in ways that are not necessarily monetary.
• Women are gaining an equal voice in the area of politics.
• Women with a strong father figure were more likely to succeed in business.

Some of the attendants: Vancouver YMCA, Teck, Mayor of Delta, the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs, UBC Mechanical Engineering and the Women’s Enterprise Centre. The Minister and MP Findley were diligent in listening to each presenter and recording the discussions.

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This was the third annual conference for women in engineering in the BC and Yukon region. Women in engineering are continuing to make breakthroughs in non-traditional career roles. WWest’s vision for today is that participants will set new goals, learn new skills, develop new networks and come away inspired and ready to take on new challenges. Sarah Campden, CTech was in attendance at this exciting conference.

There are still many challenges for women in traditionally male dominated careers. Many juggle, often precariously, the caring and support of children, spouses and parents while pursuing big dreams of making a positive difference in our society. Currently under 10% of technicians and technologists in BC and only 18% of students enrolled in engineering programs are women, even though women make up almost half of the workforce and almost 60% of the people on post secondary campuses. Progressive engineering businesses know the value of having women working in this profession, but to effectively change these demographics old attitudes and perceptions must be changed and a new vision of the 21st century must be communicated.

There were 3 keynote speakers as well as 3 breakout sessions. Sarah attended Risk Taking and Entrepreneurship, Working in a Male-Dominated Environment and Staying Healthy for Women Engineers. It was wonderful for her to reconnect with women, immigrants and students on the topics of women in the field of Engineering, Science and Technology. She was there on behalf of ASTTBC and BCWiT and was recognized by many of the attendees and presenters.

Sarah’s 6 year old daughter Thea was fortunate to attend the UBC GEERing Up Science Camp. This opened her eyes to the robot lab, electrical engineering and chemistry. What a wonderful day for a young impressionable girl!

As women in engineering, science and technology we are part of the solution. As a member of the engineering community our participation in the networking and mentoring of other women in these fields is essential.

See details at wwest.mech.ubc.ca

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On behalf of Junior Achievement British Columbia, Sarah attended the mentorship mingle with many other JABC members. The Prodigy Group has selected Junior Achievement as one of two charities of choice for 2011 and so I’m sure that there will be many more of these great events to come as the year moves forward.

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