Celebrating 30 Years of Women at Shawnigan

Posted 10/8/2019

Visiting Shawnigan alumna Vicki Stronge '94 (School House) addressed the School at a recent Saturday chapel service. Her powerful message about gender equality included great insight into her time as a Shawnigan student, and was timely as we celebrate 30 years of co-education this year. Dr. Stronge has given permission for her words to be shared in this week's reflection.

This morning, I did something for the first time in all my years at Shawnigan: I went for a run voluntarily. I absolutely hated running when I was at Shawnigan. It was a complete and utter punishment, even when it wasn’t doled out as a punishment. My least favorite day of the year was the day of the Interhouse Cross Country race, which often became an exercise in faking illness rather than actual exercise.

I love running now - it’s my favorite activity. I run to stay fit, to stay healthy, to socialize with friends and meet new people; to challenge myself, to console myself, to reward myself, and just for fun. Despite my early aversions to running, I really wanted to become a runner, for reasons I didn’t know at the time.

So I made a lot of effort to get into running. I suffered a lot at the beginning, going out too fast, giving up several times. I started doing races: 5k, 10k, half marathon. Along the way I would make tons of mistakes, and I would inevitably get injured, and start from the beginning again. It was a labour of love, and I kept at it over the years. About 10 years ago, I tried trail running for the first time, and I was totally hooked. I started running trail races and longer distances: marathons, 50ks and eventually, I decided I was ready to try a 50 Mile race – the Tahoe Rim Trail 50 Mile Race in 2017.

Lake Tahoe is an alpine lake on the border between California and Nevada, at 2500M of elevation, and surrounded by mountains. The race takes place in July, and temperatures are always mid-30s or sometimes higher. That year, there had been a particularly heavy snowpack, and several sections of the race were coated with melting, deep, slippery snow up to your knees.

But the most challenging part of the race happens at Mile 30. After you’ve run for several hours, I encountered the infamous Diamond Peak. It is a 2 mile stretch of trail right up the face of a ski mountain. It’s a 16% grade on average, with no shade, and I hit it at the hottest time of the day. I had been feeling pretty great leading up to the section, remarking to my crew “50 Miles is pretty easy!” I picked up my pacer Shannon, and off we went up Diamond Peak.

On that day it took me a full hour of hard hiking, hands on knees, legs on fire, lungs burning at the altitude. When we got to the top I was in tears. In 2 miles I had gone from euphoria to despair. My legs were trashed, I was exhausted from the effort, and my spirits were low. I couldn’t imagine running 29 more kilometers. The worst of the course was yet to come, a peak at 2800m, the highest I had ever been. I sat down on a bench and sobbed.

Shannon was doing her best to comfort me, and said “Look at the mountain you just climbed.” In front of me was a stunning, panoramic view of Lake Tahoe. But I couldn’t enjoy it, because all I could think about was the hours of running I had ahead of me. Shannon persisted. “Be proud of what you just did. And we’ll get through the rest of it too.” And I stood up, and started moving, and 4 and a half hours later I crossed the finish line. The top of Diamond Peak was a turning point for me - I could be proud of how far I’d come, and still have the strength to keep going to finish the race. It was a culmination of all the hard work I’d put in – not just in the race, not just in training for the race, but all of the years/decades I’d spent running, pushing to be a runner, overcoming setbacks. It was a very proud moment.

My journey as a runner serves as a metaphor for the progress we have made towards gender equality. I came today to help celebrate the 30^th anniversary of women at Shawnigan. And as I prepared for this talk, I thought about all the progress that women have made over the last 30 years: in education, in the workplace, and in leadership.

When I arrived at the school, it was 1989, and I was one of the first group Grade 8 girls. I remember feeling extremely proud and special. It felt privileged to be one of the early pioneers, like we were in a special club. I felt like there wasn't anything I couldn't do if I wanted to, even as I attended classes that had never had a female in them before.

And I carried that feeling of pride and self-confidence with me into university, into graduate school, into my PhD program, and into my career. I understood that there were issues facing women, especially in the fields of STEM but they felt manageable, progressing slowly but steadily, and with some active efforts on our part, we could start to overcome them.

I came back to school on a few occasions to speak to students about careers after Shawnigan. I took extra time to talk to the female students, to remind them that they could do anything they wanted, and to teach them that they needed to make sure to sign up, and take hard courses that were still overrepresented by men, push through imposter syndrome, and to lean in.

And now I am here, 25 years after graduating from Shawnigan, and I wanted to share with you some of the progress that has taken place since I graduated.

There are greater numbers of women entering higher education
Women's starting salaries are increasing, and the gender pay gap is decreasing
There is greater representation of women at almost all levels of government
There is greater representation of women in management, executive and leadership roles

BUT while we deserve to feel happy that with this progress, it’s important to also know:

The gender pay gap is decreasing, but in almost all sectors, women are routinely paid less than men for the same work
There are greater numbers of women in higher education, but the percent of graduate students in Science, Engineering and Mathematics fields is still far below 50%
There are greater number of women at high levels of corporations, but women make up only 20% of board members, and 5% of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies
There is still significant underrepresentation in leadership in the areas of technology, finance, public policy, entrepreneurship – areas that are essential for setting policies and creating the future

At the current rates, we won’t see gender equality in the US for another 208 years. Just because we have made a lot of progress doesn’t mean we don’t still have a long way to go.

There have been significant efforts and initiatives to encourage women to advocate for themselves in their careers. Mentorship programs, women-specific societies, diversity programs within companies, including mine - all designed to teach women ways in which we can overcome gender bias and close the gender gap.

When I was looking back at the talks I had given previously, I promoted the same thing: lean in, sit at the table, apply for jobs even if you don’t have all the listed qualifications, fight your imposter syndrome, speak up for yourself and call out any incidents of sexist behavior or discrimination.

These ideas are not new - we've been using them for at least the 25 years I've been out of school.I’ve been listening to, using, and giving this advice for 25 years.

And yet, here we still are. Some remarkable progress, but a long way to go. Right now, we are at the top of Diamond Peak. Mile 31 of a 50 mile race. A long way from the start line, a long way from that Interhouse Cross Country run. But many more miles to go, on tired legs, and sometimes low spirits. The race is far from over.

It’s time to question whether the current approaches are sufficient to achieve gender equality. There’s only so far women can lean in when she isn’t in the right room.

It’s time to consider the use of additional strategies, beyond educating women to advocate for themselves, and beyond asking them to take on the more masculine leadership characteristics - assertiveness, directness, confidence. What if instead, we embrace the inherent value that women can bring? Leadership traits such as compassion, holistic thinking, emotional sensitivity, empathy – traits that are more commonly attributed to women – are equally as valuable in creating successful teams.

Maybe, instead of looking at gender diversity as a requirement, we can look at it as an advantage.

And so how do we get to gender equality, to equal representation of men and women in leadership positions, beyond encouraging women to take on more masculine traits?

One of the best ways to accomplish this is a tried and tested method of setting gender-specific targets and offering gender-specific awards. As I looked for successful outcomes of setting gender-specific targets, I found an excellent example at Shawnigan.

Throughout my 5 years at the school, I could see the increase in the number of women that arrived each year. By the time I graduated in 1994, it was nearly 50% female. That is a very rapid rate to achieve almost equal numbers of boys and girls. It took only 5 years to get a female head of school, Kristen Bendickson. This time to parity was not an accident. The school had a target to achieve equal numbers of boys and girls, which meant accepting girls at a higher rate than boys. I think we can all agree that it was the right thing to do. But at the time, on an individual level, it must have felt very tough for everyone involved. There were many parents and students that felt that their applications had been rejected in favor of those from girls.

I was here when Groves house was a still a boys’ house. It was my brother Piers’s house, and the one to which I felt the greatest connection. I remember the tears and sadness of boys in all grades, feeling devastated that not only did they have to leave their beloved house, but that their house be handed over to girls, no longer available to them because of their gender. I want to commend the school on pushing through this difficult time to get to the end goal that we all wanted, which is equal representation of boys and girls at the school. And now there is no need for unequal acceptance rates.

Why is it so difficult for major corporations, governments, entities, to implement the same, known successful strategies to achieve the goal that we all want? One factor that I have seen is that women often feel that they don't want to be on the receiving end of a gender-specific award. Ask yourself: would you rather win an award for best male artist, or best female biology student, or would you rather win best overall artist, or best overall biology student? It's no contest - of course we all want to be recognized for achievements independent of our gender. But it’s important to remember that the whole reason that gender-specific awards are being offered is so we can get to the place where they are no longer needed. So seek them out and accept them with pride.

I encourage everyone here, to take part in the efforts to achieve gender diversity. The world in which you are being educated now, is not the same as the world you will be working in shortly. All of us, not just the women in this room, need to look at gender diversity for what it is – an advantage, not a requirement. It’s in everyone’s interest to be at a place where we don’t have to question whether diversity initiatives are playing a role.

This is our Diamond Peak. We’ve come a long way, but there is still a long way to go.

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