Joining the old boy's club: it is extremely difficult for women to attain positions of real power, to break through the glass ceiling that restricts their careers

During her flight - surgeon training in the late 1960s, Wendy Clay was advised that she would "have to work extra hard to make up for the handicap of being a female." But, she says she never saw her career as different from a man's.

In 1994, Ms. Clay, a doctor, pilot, flight surgeon, and 26 - year veteran of the Canadian Forces, was promoted to major - general and surgeon - general. The 51 - year - old native of British Columbia was the first woman to attain major - general's rank. She became the first female flight surgeon in the Canadian military, and in 1974 was the first woman to earn pilot's wings in the forces.

A lot of women are highly successful at their careers but often find themselves stunned by the same 1960s view that saw Ms. Clay's gender as a "handicap."

Engineering, for example, is notorious for shutting out women. According to a national report by the Canadian Committee on Women in Engineering (CCWE), only 14% of undergraduate engineering students in 1990 were women. There were only 54 (two percent) full - time women faculty members in Canadian university engineering departments, compared with 2,438 men. A mere three percent of working engineers were women, and most of them (two - thirds) held jobs with the least level of responsibility available in the profession. Only 41 women, or one percent of working women engineers, held executive positions.

The CCWE released its report, More Than Just Numbers, in the spring of 1992. The study was done because of the massacre of 14 young women engineering students at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal in December 1989.

The enrollment of women in engineering courses has climbed over the last few years. However, it still is nowhere near the level of women in other historically male - dominated professions, such as law and medicine. That's not surprising in a profession described at best as unwelcoming to women, and at worst as contemptuous and hostile.

Some engineering schools have developed new codes of conduct that are less offensive to women and have cleaned up sexist student publications. But, attitudes are changing more out of necessity than enlightenment.

The legal profession is a lot friendlier. Women make up 27% of practicing lawyers and 50% of law students. Their numbers in the profession will be at least equal to that of men by 2000. However, women are leaving the legal profession at a much faster rate than men. Why? The companies they work for are not making allowances for their child - rearing needs, according to a Canadian Bar Association (CBA) task force.

The task force was headed by Bertha Wilson, the first woman on the Supreme Court of Canada. She says the failure to deal with the issue of child care is a reflection of the profession's past as an entirely male world. Many large law firms set minimums of 1,600 hours a year for which its lawyers must bill clients. A lawyer with young children simply cannot put in enough hours to reach this target. The task force recommended a 20% cut in minimum billable hours. Among its 250 recommendations, it also said that judges should receive mandatory training in sex and race issues; that law societies should begin strict monitoring of women's progress in all law firms; and that law schools should develop more programs to attract and keep women and minority students.

Based on a two - year survey of 132 female judges, the task force said that chief judges need to be fairer in assigning cases. Several women judges reported they have been denied the chance to conduct sexual assault trials by chief judges who consider them biased simply for being women. They also said they are kept from judging complex murder trials because it's claimed they lack experience. On the other hand, they are pressured to take more family law cases, to spare male judges from "women's work."

As a result of the study, the Canadian Bar Association admitted that family responsibilities should not keep a lawyer from becoming a partner in a firm or affect the right to equitable pay. The CBA also says law firms should apply flexible treatment to men and women with children. In the past, women would often go on maternity leave and come back to find they'd been demoted, given less important duties, or even fired.

The Bank of Montreal, Canada's third largest bank, has adopted a refreshingly different view in the business world. In 1994, it won an award for promoting women's career and leadership development. It offers a wide variety of programs aimed at helping women advance within the bank.

Granted, this is a very recent development. Only three years earlier, the bank acknowledged that women were not getting ahead. This was mainly because those responsible for promoting them believed the "conventional wisdom" that women were uneducated and uncommitted.

But the Bank of Montreal did a study on the advancement of women in 1991 and found the "wisdom" is based on myths. The study concluded that:

Women have longer service records than men at every level of the bank up to senior management, where their presence is a relatively new development;

Bank performance appraisals show that at every job level, there are more women than men in the two top tiers of performance;

In non - management and junior management jobs -- considered the "prime feeder routes" to more senior positions -- more women than men hold degrees.

Looking at recent rates of change in its ranks, the bank found that only 18% of its executives and 22% of its senior managers would be women by the year 2000.

When the study was released, three - quarters of the bank's staff were women. They held 91% of non - management jobs. At the senior management level, 13% were women. At the executive level, 9% were women. By 1993, women represented 54% of executive level promotions, up dramatically from 29% two years earlier.

That's impressive. But as Globe and Mail columnist Margaret Wente points out, "If all of Canada's female Chief Executive Officers got together -- the ones with clout -- you could put them in a very small room..."

It's true. Women may be starting to climb the corporate ladder but still are shut out of the powerful boardroom and top executive posts of Canadian public companies. In 1992, the University of Quebec reported that one in six companies had no female senior executives, and 64% had no female directors.

Women made significant gains in the '80s, but still hold less than 10% of key corporate positions across all industries.

Judy Rebick, former president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, complains that companies are run like old boys' networks, where top jobs go to those who fit the mold of the people already in power. Women are rarely fast - tracked into senior jobs or encouraged to take on leadership roles, as is often done with men.

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES:

1. In 1993, the Supreme Court of Canada decided against lawyer Beth Symes in her bid to deduct the cost of paying her nanny as a business expense. The court argued that other tax laws allow some personal deductions (though skimpy ones) on child care. But Ms. Symes says that if boozy lunches, golf fees, and other employees' wages are deductible, why not nannies' pay? Women shoulder most of society's child - rearing responsibilities and are therefore at a disadvantage in their careers, she says. It has been argued that tax laws were designed largely by male legislators, for a business world that until recently has been primarily male. What do you think?

2. Sylvia Bashevkin, a University of Toronto political scientist, says some people link political failure in parties led by women to gender "but you have to ask what position were the parties in when the women obtained the leadership?" Ms. Bashevkin believes that Canadian political parties only turn to women for leadership "when the party is on the skids...when the competitive status is vastly diminished or when the party was never in a competitive position," she says. She also believes there can be role models even in defeat: "Men lose campaigns and go on to other things, and so will women." Put Ms. Bashevkin to the test by researching the successes and failures of Canadian women in politics.

IT'S THE LAW

The Federal Employment Equity Act became law in 1986 and covers both Crown corporations and federally regulated firms, such as banks, communications, and transportation companies. The legislation was designed to reduce discrimination against women, visible minorities, aboriginal people, and people with disabilities. It requires employers with 100 or more employees to make annual reports on the representation of these four groups in their work forces.

A LONG AND WINDING ROAD

While there has been progress, family leave and pay - equity policies still are seen as innovative. Even Canadian unions and their U.S. counterparts have a long way to go in promoting women to executive positions. That's the opinion of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The ILO is concerned with internal union practices that are intimidating or offensive to potential women leaders. In a 1993 report it said that, if women are ever going to achieve equality, they have to be essential partners in trade unions.

In Canada, unionized women earn an average of 83.7% of what men earn, compared with 69.6% for non - union women. Women are the fastest - growing segment of the North American labour movement and represent the largest potential growth area. At the national and international union levels in Canada, women unionists hold 25% of executive board seats. This is well below their union membership level of 39%, but much better than in the U.S.

According to the ILO report, "Issues such as pay equity, family leave, greater participation and respect on the job, child - care provision and other concerns expressed by women show improvements in Canada, where women's caucuses are more organized and have made more successful demands. Canadian union women are also allied more successfully with feminist organizations."

FACT FILE

Until the 1950s, many firms refused to employ married women at any level.

POLITICAL WOMEN

As the first head of a national party, NDP leader Audrey McLaughlin rejects the traditional "macho" confrontational style of politics. Instead, she favours consensus and accommodation and has stressed affirmative - action programs to promote the equality of women within the NDP. But, she has been criticized for not acting "enough like a man" by those who think women must copy men's aggressive behaviour to succeed in politics.

Liberal MP and Deputy Prime Minister Sheila Copps says: "I was aggressive, and I got called a bitch."

So style, it seems, is less an issue in politics than simply being a woman.

Despite modest gains in recent years, women remain seriously underrepresented in Parliament. Their ranks are also thin on federally appointed boards and commissions, in managerial positions of the federal public service, and in the judiciary, according to a report prepared for the National Advisory Council on the Status of Women.

Released in 1990, the report pointed out that "...equality of the sexes is unlikely in the short term," unless some major changes are made.

Since their first appearance in the House of Commons in 1921, women have increased their representation to only 13% of elected members, in almost 70 years.

In 1990, only 40 of the 295 members in the House of Commons were women. In 1993 there were 39. The October 1993 election brought in another 14 women members for a record 20% share.

In 1993, Sheila Copps predicted: "We are two elections away from throwing the whole issue of gender aside for good. Once the number of women in politics approaches that of men, it stops being an issue. The fall of (former Prime Minister) Kim Campbell will not be the fall of womanhood."

Some think women won't have to wait until their numbers equal those of men to harness more power. The "critical mass" at which they start to significantly influence the operation of Parliament is 30%. That figure is based on European parliaments that have had a high proportion of women as members.

The Nunavut Legislative Assembly in Canada's Arctic could be the first legislature in the world to have guaranteed equal participation by both women and men. In December 1994, the Nunavut Implementation Commission recommended that each constituency in the new territory elect both a male and a female member. Nunavut, which currently has a population of 25,000, is expected to include about 29,000 people by 1999 when it becomes an independent territory. It will comprise one - fifth of Canada's land mass in the eastern and northern portion of the Northwest Territories.

The Commission's discussion paper says that women remain systematically underrepresented in politics in Canada and around the world. It goes on to say that "women in Nunavut are unlikely to achieve full and equal participation in politics" unless equal representation is designed into the legislative system.

EQUAL FEES; UNEQUAL PRIVILEGE

It was a struggle, but in April 1994, Beach Grove Golf and Country Club in Windsor, Ontario reached a settlement with Tamra Jean Tobin - Teno. Mrs. Tobin - Teno is a lawyer who for years complained that the golf club gave the best playing time to its male members. Women were excluded entirely from prime playing times between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., and on Saturday mornings when a lot of business networking occurs.

Beach Grove amended its policies so they no longer discriminate against women and agreed to pay Ms. Tobin - Teno $10,000 in damages.

Many private clubs charge women the same membership fees but don't allow them the same playing privileges as men. Some clubs still will not allow women as independent members at all, but only as the spouse of a male member.

A FOR ALBERTA

Alberta takes first place for putting women in charge. Females filled an average of 32.4% of management jobs in the province, according to a 1992 survey. That compared with a national average of 25.4%.

FACT FILE

Data from 16 Canadian medical schools indicates that 52.2% of those accepted as students in 1993/94 were women.

FACT FILE

As recently as 1984, United Airlines Inc. lost a class - action case for sacking any female flight attendant who got married.

Figure not transcribed Consult original publication

Copyright Canada and The World Jan 1995
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