Femmes sur le terrain : an initiative that’s scoring points

Danièle Sauvageau needs no introduction. Well known in the world of Canadian women’s hockey, she has continued her career in a number of areas. For her talk during the “Femmes sur le terrain” event, Ms. Sauvageau shared a rather revealing anecdote.

“When I was young, I played hockey with my two brothers. And we would have the same argument at every Christmas dinner. I really believe that I was actually better than they were! But when I went with them to the arena at Saint-Eustache, the man who met us said, ‘They can play, but not you.’ So I asked what I could do to help out. I started by refilling water bottles, and later I was able to participate in supervising training sessions.”

That’s when her career as a coach first started. “I went to the Olympic Games ten times,” she states proudly. But she also admits that the word “no” really upsets her. “Women’s leadership is the instinct to offer another woman what we did not necessarily have ourselves. And you have to remember that the word ‘no’ contains the letters ‘n’ and ‘o,’ for ‘new opportunity,’” she wisely pointed out.

The Canadian Women’s Foundation states that “women make up slightly more than half the population of Canada, yet they are still underrepresented in political and professional leadership positions.” A number of statistics shed more light on the situation.

According to Statistics Canada, women represent only 29% of Canadian Chamber of Commerce members as of July 2021. And according to this same source, women hold 35.6% of management positions and 30.9% of upper management positions. Lastly, only 4% of the largest Canadian publicly traded companies have a woman as a CEO, as per data compiled by The Globe and Mail.

In a study entitled “Diversity Wins: How Inclusion Matters,” published by McKinsey & Company in May 2020, the authors arrive at a highly interesting conclusion. “Companies with higher levels of ethnic, cultural, and gender diversity are more likely to achieve higher profitability than less diverse competitors,” they write. Companies are now able to offer the Women Leaders Program to employees who would like to advance their careers at their organization.

As mentioned by Khadija Azizi during her talk, women leaders can also serve as role models and mentors for young women. A study conducted by KPMG showed that 67% of women considered their most important leadership lessons to have resulted from contact with other women.

The idea of mutual assistance therefore seems central to women’s leadership. The effect of following in others’ footsteps is also evident, with 86% of women confirming that seeing a greater number of women in leadership positions led them to believe that they also could achieve those roles.

The talks by Danièle Sauvageau, Roxanne Doucet, and Khadija Azizi also drew parallels between the world of sports and women’s leadership. While athletes need to display determination and resilience to overcome obstacles, women leaders are also often called to overcome extra challenges related to gender stereotypes and societal expectations to reach higher positions within an organization.

Team spirit is another element they have in common. Every athlete contributes to a group effort to win a trophy, and similarly women leaders promote collaboration and inclusion by encouraging a diversity of points of view to achieve optimal results. Lastly, great athletes and great managers both have the capacity to inspire future generations. To all the women who have demonstrated great leadership, Videotron Business would like to say a heartfelt “Thank you!”