TORONTO: The Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce organized its 9th Annual International Women’s Day Celebrations.
The program featured high-powered, high-achieving women leaders from the corporate, government, and diplomatic spheres. Lisa Lisson, President, FedEx Express Canada, in her keynote address highlighted the significance of International Women’s Day, emphasizing that it is on this day that women are recognized for their achievements without regard to division whether national, ethnic, cultural, economic, or political.
The day marks the acknowledgment of women’s rights and accelerating gender parity. Some of the women’s day values are justice, dignity, hope, equality, collaboration, tenacity, appreciation, respect, and empathy.
Ms. Lisson said: “I have learnt that we are all born with a resilient muscle and it is up to us to decide if we want to strengthen it. They say that what doesn’t break you, makes you stronger, but I have come to realize that there is an X factor in there. We all need to strengthen our resilient muscle when life doesn’t go according to our plan. Some of the factors that make a person resilient are maintaining a positive attitude, being optimistic, being mindful, regulating our thoughts and emotions, the ability to look for life lessons during tough times, and believing that there are brighter days ahead even when we are not sure how.”
Ms. Lisson shared her story of how she overcame tragedy when her husband had a heart attack and could not recover from it. She confesses that grief hit her harder than she thought it would.
Her mother helped her overcome the tragedy by a simple advice:
‘Life is not what happens to you, but what you choose to do with what happens to you.’ In her special address, as the Guest of Honour, Mary Ng, Canada’s Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, said International Women’s Day is the time to reinforce the government’s commitment to gender equality. This is a key agenda for the government and there is still more work to be done to ensure equal participation of women in every sphere – from board rooms to businesses to classrooms and community centres.
“Supporting women is the smartest thing that we can do, by advancing gender equality we can add $150 billion to our economy, and $12 trillion to the world economy.”
The speeches were followed by a panel discussion on the topic: Women Leaders: What it takes to reach the top and stay at the top. Sangita Iyer, an independent documentary filmmaker and positive psychology expert moderated the discussion.
Apoorva Srivastava, the Consul General of India in Toronto; Bonnie Crombie, the Mayor of Mississauga; and Vasudha Seth, the Director of Sales at ArcelorMittal Dofasco and the Vice Chair at Ontario Chamber of Commerce were the panelists.
Introducing the panel discussion, Iyer said women Leaders face a glass ceiling in their rise to the upper echelons of their career ladder – whether in the corporate world, or in government or in bureaucracy.
Indian consul-general Apoorva Srivastava said, “The diplomat’s profession is immensely enriching. It is a journey of experience, – you get to travel a lot, stay in a country for three years, you get the opportunity to absorb a culture, make lifelong friends.
To be a part of foreign service, you have to learn a language, and I learnt French, which led to a posting in Paris.
This was followed by a posting in Kathmandu and then when the Indian Ambassador to Nepal was posted to Paris, he took me and my husband, who was also serving in Kathmandu to Paris.
Thereafter, I had an immensely successful and fruitful stint as the staff officer with Sushma Swaraj and then with Dr. Jaishankar before I came here.”
Mayor Bonnie Crombie said that her path to the top was accidental, but once she had chosen the path, she was determined to reach the top. She became the Liberal candidate for Streetsville, and won the Parliamentary election, but took early retirement from the House of Commons. It was then that Hazel McCallion approached her to contest the council polls, which she won, and then when Hazel McCallion decided to retire, Bonnie Crombie ran and won the Mayoral polls, and was re-elected.
Vasudha Seth said, “Since I began, there has been a tremendous change in the demography of the company, there are a lot more women in the professional and manufacturing spheres. A big part of my journey was realizing fairly early on that even though I had studied engineering, it wasn’t the best fit for me, and I decided to push myself further and do my MBA. So, an important lesson is to be open-minded.”