Two Prince George women in leadership roles recently heard from one of the world's most important women about how female power is transforming the world.
Northern Development Initiative Trust CEO Janine North and Carla Johnston, executive director of the city's Downtown Business Improvement Association, were recently at a leadership conference hosted by the Vancouver Board of Trade. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the delegates that she has studied global female power exhaustively and has data showing how women leaders internationally actually correlate with improved Gross Domestic Product results for their nations.
"One of the points she made that really resonated with me was how women in leadership have to grow a skin like a rhinoceros, and you have to accept criticism seriously but not personally," said North.
There are an increasing number of women in leadership positions in Prince George, who are inspiring future generations of women. North believes Northern B.C. is a great place for women to fill those positions of power.
"If you are talented, and you get to execute on your potential, your reputation for competent delivery and responsible leadership gets noticed," North said. "Women or men of competence get to rise to their potential quicker here."
It isn't entirely new that Prince George has accepted women as captains of business and governance. The first female mayor of Prince George was Carrie Jane Gray, who became the city's first alderwoman in 1952 and then won the city's mayoral election in 1958.
Although many women were elected to the city council and regional district tables following Gray - most notably Anne Martin, Shirley Gratton, and Monica Becott - there wasn't another female mayor until Shari Green in 2011.
Green co-hosted a Women's Day breakfast last week along with veteran cabinet minister Shirley Bond and Baljit Sethi of the Immigrant and Multicultural Services Society, where hundreds of female leaders attended and were celebrated.
"I think it is significant but not surprising to me," said Green about the volume of female role models available in Prince George. "Women in this community are smart and savvy and good leaders. It is inspirational to know that for younger women, there are opportunities out there for them."
Green said when she was growing up, it didn't matter if it was Margaret Thatcher or Clinton, she gravitated to women of power to learn from their example. Now that she is in a power position of her own, it is North to whom she looks most for advice and example.
Some other role models in the public sector would include longtime MLA Shirley Bond, city manager Beth James, Initiatives Prince George CEO Heather Oland, board of education chair Sharel Warrington and six of the seven elected trustees, the CEO of Northern Health Cathy Ulrich, Lheidli T'enneh elected councillors Jennifer Pighin and Louella Nome, and the latest to join the list is Tourism Prince George CEO Erica Hummel.
On the private sector side, Sonica Kandola experienced the shift to more women in power roles in a cultural context as well. She and her two sisters grew up the daughters of new Canadians from India who were still steeped in their homeland's culture, with specific prescriptions for girls and women. The Kandola girls did not realize until later in life that their mom and dad - Kay and Ray - "raised us as kids, not as girls" and insisted the girls all knew how to do the so-called "blue" jobs in life as much as the "pink" ones, and that they could grow up to be anything they wished.
Kandola is now the owner of RK Furniture Gallery, one of many Kandola family businesses around B.C. She said that women were not in corporate settings for her to have as role models, but she recognized early in life that society was working to remove gender barriers.
"I remember when dad's Rotary club was all men, and then Lorna Ditmar became the first woman member," said Kandola. "That was such a big deal. Now I'm active in Rotary, women are not only in leadership roles in Rotary, they are doing a lot of the heaviest kinds of work."
Kandola named North, James, Green, Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation CEO Judy Neiser, Shannon Horrigan, the owner of Shhhh Boutique, and Citizen publisher Colleen Sparrow as excellent role models of women in leadership.
"Prince George has created a local culture where equality is the norm," said Christie Ray, the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce. "I don't think the community deliberately focused on that, it just happened that there were a lot of great people doing great work, and some of them happened to be women, some happened to be men."
She said she currently looks to North and Bond as personal role models, but she grew up with key women of quality - her mother and grandmother - demonstrating values like work ethic, educating your views, treating others as you would wish to be treated, and treating yourself respectfully as well.
