Category: Women in Engineering
30 Years Later…Moving Forward, Building Strength, Inspiring Change
April 5, 2020
I want to start this post by thanking my colleague, Mary Wells, for engaging Engineering Deans Canada and Engineers Canada in a nation-wide project to mark the 30th anniversary of the shooting at Ecole Polytechnique. She is a wonderful colleague, and her partnership on this journey made a heart-wrenching job meaningful. The full project is…
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Margaret Ann Armour – a remarkable life
May 26, 2019
Margaret Ann Armour was a remarkable colleague, and one of the strongest people I have known. It is remarkable to me she died only a few hours before Concordia’s convocation where she was to speak to graduates and receive an honorary degree. I can imagine her frustration that she would “cause a fuss.” She would…
Carrie Fisher aka Princess Leia RIP
December 31, 2016
I got the news that Carrie Fisher died two days after seeing Rogue 1. As always, Princess Leia’s appearance on the screen made my heart leap with hope and excitement in a way that no male hero ever will. She gave my generation of women exactly what her character held up with her final line…
From a Sea of Suits to a Rainbow of Humans
December 11, 2016
Removing structural barriers is better for everyone. A friend of mine just shared an acceptance speech by Madonna, whose comment, “I think the most controversial thing I have ever done is to stick around.” struck a chord with me, along with Shonda Rimes’ acceptance speech earlier this year, “How many women had to hit that…
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25 years later…
December 6, 2014
25 years ago today, 14 female engineering students were killed at Ecole Polytechnique. I was studying for my PhD at the time, teaching the same course those women were taking. This anniversary is always vivid for me. On the one year anniversary, three of us were interviewed in a long piece CBC did about women…