Empowerment Through Our Choice in Words
“We are standing on the shoulders of the women who came before us and we cannot disappoint them.” – Dr. Vianne Timmons
I believe words are powerful. The words from Dr. Vianne Timmons’ speech at a PowHERhouse event sponsored by SaskPower resonated with me. I reflected on the lives of women that have paved the way through their voices for equal opportunity and to enable future generations of women to reach countless opportunities to succeed in life, including me.
Words reflect our mindset
I have a daughter in elementary school. I am doing my best to teach her a growth mindset through role modelling and positive self-talk. I personally believe that our words are indicators of our mindset. Over the last several months, I have heard the term “male-dominated” from several women’s support groups who were working to elevate and support female career growth in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) careers. It dawned on me that those words could possibly be generating feelings of under-confidence and a fight to change a trajectory.
Companies committed to the movement of balancing the number of females and males in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) careers must continue to speak up to specifically invite and encourage females into the roles. Let’s work to empower all our workforce as unique contributing individuals. I believe this begins with a mindset shift, which is demonstrated through our words. As of 2020, I personally challenge us to stop using the words “male-dominated” and intentionally replace them with “male-populated”.
Words have the power to change lives, help us to feel included and start a movement
I think we need to be more deliberate in our choice of words when stating that there is an imbalance in gender numbers in STEM. The definition of domination in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary is supremacy and exercising mastery or ruling power. In contrast, population is a noun for all the inhabitants of a town, area or country. Populations are factual. Populations can change over time.
According to Statistics Canada’s 2016 Census, women made up 34 per cent of STEM bachelor’s degree holders and 23 per cent of science and technology workers among Canadians aged 25 to 64. Let’s stop referring to it as male dominated. The word populated allows for equal opportunity, whereas dominated creates the vision or feeling an uphill battle. Let’s ignite this mindshift.
There has never been a better time to be in the workforce
The pathway to what you want to experience in your careers is there – waiting for those who demonstrate strong work ethic, intentional pursuit and character. I am gratefully reaping the benefits of the women who have pioneered their way into the workforce not all that long ago. I am also aware that my responsibility as a female leader in 2020 is to ensure the path for those coming up behind me is clear, direct and as unencumbered with unnecessary blocks or barriers as possible.
I do not want our current and future generation of women feeling like they must fight for their career.
Instead, I want them to be empowered to lead, deliver and change statistics. Was I the only woman in the room? Many times. Did I ever feel alone? No. I’m thankful for my team members, particularly the men and women who have supported my career.
I hope one day that we won’t need to use the term male-populated to describe STEM careers. Let’s work to make it obsolete.
#chooseourwords