5 minute read
The unspoken barrier
By Melissa Ng, MBA, P.Geo, Chief Geologist, McArthur River Operation, Cameco Corporation, Chair, Women in Mining Canada
Women in the Canadian mining industry face a lot of challenges. We are a minority, making up only 14 per cent of the workforce across divisions of the industry (Government of Canada, 2019)*. We face a number of barriers that are unique to women in a male-dominated industry, including gender bias, glass ceilings, and the challenges that come with balancing our careers and motherhood. As we are raising our voices now more than ever, demanding that companies take action,
Recently, I had a discussion with a woman experiencing this aggression from her supervisor. She and her supervisor were the only women in an 18-person IT department. At first, she believed that her supervisor was being extra challenging as a way of toughening her up, but after months of receiving tough work assignments without positive reinforcement, she began to have doubts.
there is one issue that is rarely spoken about but can be a defining experience for almost all women: the issue of female-to-female aggression and micro-aggressions. Perhaps this is because so much of the conversation around female diversity in mining centres around how women lift each other up, but the reality is that many have a different experience, one where we feel like other women are not, in fact, watching out for each other, or the fear that this will fall on deaf ears. Regardless of the why, this is something that many women in the industry have or are currently dealing with and is something we should be talking openly about.
Recently, i had a discussion with a woman experiencing this aggression from her supervisor. she and her supervisor were the only women in an 18-person iT department. At first, she believed that her supervisor was being extra challenging as a way of toughening her up, but after months of receiving tough work assignments without positive reinforcement, she began to have doubts. it wasn’t until she overheard her supervisor talking with a peer that the truth started to become clear, as she heard her say, “i don’t know how else i can get her to quit without making it look obvious. i will be dammed if someone so young thinks they can replace me.” What was shocking was this woman had no intention of replacing her supervisor; she did not have the experience to lead the team. Furthermore, she looked up to her as a mentor. This is not the only case i’ve heard of where jealously was the motivator for this type of aggression, as ageism is a form of discrimination that many people feel. Mature women in the mining industry may be responding to this form of discrimination in their workplace with these jealous acts towards younger women.
Younger women also exhibit aggression and jealous behaviour towards their mature female counterparts. One woman shared the following with me: “i was excited to give an opportunity to a young female engineer; since i could remember i was always the only female in our department. But since then, i have learned that she talks behind my back. Most of my role is bureaucracy and behind-thescenes work, but she complains to everyone that it is clear she does more work than i do and does not understand why i am even around. instead of talking to me about what i do, she even went to HR to let them know the department could save a lot of money if they got rid of me.”
There are many reasons why this type of behaviour might be occurring among women of all levels in our industry. Lack of opportunities for growth, career advancement, and leadership opportunities could be leading to an increased sense of competition, women could be mirroring the behaviour they received earlier in the career… there is a lot of work needed to learn the causes. But what i am most interested in discussing is, how do we solve this problem? Many believe the solution is to report this behaviour, but as much as we want to, little is done about it.
Another woman shared, “i was shocked to learn a whole year later that the same female that i approached HR about was now undermining the work of another female since i left that company.” A similar story is this anecdote: “When i approached the general manager about the bullying behaviour of a group of females towards one woman, i was met with the response that they were just women being women.”
After hearing these statements, it is surprising to know that in one of these cases, a female was approached in HR to report the behaviour and nothing was done
in response. As females in roles of authority, we need to take this issue as seriously as physical aggression and reverse this pattern especially now, in a time when we are generally more open to discussing mental health in the workplace. We need to transition to taking all forms of aggression seriously and deal with them accordingly.
Which brings me back to the central question – how do we deal with it? The first step is to be courageous enough to step forward and raise your voice if you find yourself in this situation. The more we do this, the more open we are, the more it opens the eyes of HR teams and supervisors that these are not single occurrences or isolated incidents. The other step is to be courageous enough to speak up when you see it, even if it is after the fact. As one woman told me, “During a morning meeting, it was clear to the other women in the room that i was the subject of another women’s snarky remarks. it was curious to me that the men never picked up on it when it was startling clear to the other women.”
Lastly, those in HR and other supervisory roles reading this article need to be more aware of how prevalent this issue is in our industry. it does not matter what your gender is, this behaviour should not be tolerated, and while we may be reticent to raise it, given the other many challenges we as women in the industry face – why raise another? it is also important to point out that it is predominantly an issue among females and we need to acknowledge it and be okay with that statement. We are sometimes our own worst enemies, and the first step to creating lasting change is to create more awareness and openness on the subject.
*Government of Canada. (2019). Minerals Sector Employment. Retrieved from https://www.nrcan. gc.ca/science-data/science-research/ earth-sciences/earth-sciencesresources/earth-sciences-federalprograms/minerals-sectoremployment/16739.
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