WALKING MY OWN PATH, FINDING COMPANY ALONG THE WAY

I grew up at a time and place when little girls weren’t encouraged to explore the possibilities beyond becoming a secretary, teacher or nurse. With girl power still years away and feminists viewed as man-haters, so-called traditional roles were definitely the norm. But I wasn’t normal. At 16 I was a junior gardener, piano teacher and our village’s first female volunteer fire fighter. At 18 I was the only woman in my class to go to university – Metallurgical Engineering in Montreal. That same year the Montreal massacre, a rarity in Canada and prompted by a hatred of feminists, brought home the fact that forging a different path comes at a price. It turns out that I was never destined to become an engineer (too much math) and at 19 I started working as a crusher operator in a mine, once again paving the way for other local women to join a higher-paid workforce. The path to survey geoscientist was full of twists and turns. History (too much politics) and archaeology (Indiana Jones never showed up) were sampled before I found my true love – landforms and earth surface processes.

The years spent at a smaller undergraduate university with instructors and professors focused on teaching gave me the confidence to consider graduate studies. And this hints at my biggest challenge, and it’s one that I’ve struggled with my entire life. Self-confidence. Like so many of us, I can blow past the barriers constructed by others but crash into the ones I construct for myself. And there have been ample building materials for me to construct those barriers. As a naturally shy and introverted immigrant living in rural Manitoba, I was an easy target for teasing and later bullying when my dad laid off the workforce from the region’s biggest resource-based employer. I benefitted from ground-breaking efforts of generations of strong and brave women but still had to push against the prevailing attitudes of needing to be super-woman to succeed. But here I am. I am a 50+ field geologist, and even though the struggle with self-confidence will always be with me, I have learned to build on my successes. I can run multi-year drilling programs, conduct surficial mapping programs, collaborate on geophysical projects, help create popular geology books, lead committees and advise municipalities and sister ministries all while bee-keeping and wild-life gardening. Bring on the next challenge!