leadership
YOU SHOULD’VE BEEN A BOY! by Gabrielle Battiste
I’m half Italian and half Ukrainian and neither culture is known for encouraging feminism. Women bake bread and men work outside. But I was a tomboy when I was young. I wanted to play with cars, not barbies. I remember my dad making my sister and I a big dollhouse for our birthdays, which were close together, and it was the worst birthday of my life because I wanted a glow in the dark race track set. I immediately shaved all her dolls in retribution. I played chess and liked to compete – I didn’t sew and I didn’t care about dresses. My Ukrainian grandfather would regularly say to me, “You should’ve been a boy.” Don’t get me wrong – this wasn’t an insult. To him, this was one of the highest compliments he could give me. Back then, I only knew that I had to prove I was better than every boy in order to be able to do the things I wanted, like mowing the lawn and playing with cars. I had two brothers and they got to do the things I wanted to do without even trying. I would read the dictionary to learn the hardest words so I could outsmart my dad. I learned that the work my mom did in the house all day was not as valuable and was somehow…less. So wrong – on so many levels. Growing up, I was often told how pretty I was, but was incredibly uncomfortable hearing it. It actually became nauseating. To me, that meant people took me even less seriously – especially men. It was a way of passing judgment on my level of intelligence based on my looks. Eventually, I got comfortable wearing dresses and walking in stilettos, and learned to like the way I looked for me – but it took a long time.
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Male Dominated Fields All my life, I’ve worked in male dominated fields – often the only female in a leadership role, or one of only a couple. I’ve put up with innuendo, outright sexism, being talked over or through, and any number of other overt or micro-aggressions. I’ve been Chief Privacy Officer, Chief Ombudsman, Chief Anti-Money Laundering Officer, Chief Complaints Officer, Chief Risk Officer and General Counsel. I’ve helped run $500M organizations and overseen staff of 1-1000. I’ve started organizations to help sex workers and to change the face of policing. I chair Autism Edmonton. Yet, I still don’t feel like I’ve accomplished enough. Throughout my life, I’ve experienced differing levels of hardship. I’ve been a janitor and sold fruit by the road to make ends meet. I’ve been largely a single parent to my 27-year-old son, who has survived cancer, lives with Type 1 Diabetes and is Autistic. I’ve survived sexual and physical assaults lasting well over a decade – usually while operating in high profile, high stress challenging roles of leadership and accountability.
