It was a day to celebrate women’s empowerment at the Grande Event Centre.
Although International Women’s Day was recognized on Sunday, North Bay held its event on Monday with day-long activities at the conference centre.
“It was meant to capture both males and females to attend International Women’s Day to learn about resiliency,” said Kennedy Horton the program and events coordinator at the Business Centre, Nipissing, and Parry Sound. “In the afternoon we had the opportunity to play with the failure toy which teaches us how to deal with failure and how to apply it.”
Carol Brazeau-Weisflock runs Drivers Ed 4 U in North Bay and says events like these are great, but there is still a gap between men and women in the workplace.
“We still have challenges and we still have room for growth,” she explained. “We’re getting there and we are getting more and more opportunities to grow the business and that’s where women have to learn where to get the help and support.”
“It’s like anything else, we still have challenges to be equal to men when it comes to equal pay,” Brazeau-Weisflock continued. “I believe we do have some challenges when we have a similar business to men. We do struggle sometimes, but we are getting tough.”
Brazeau-Weisflock worked as a welder in the ‘90s and says the workforce has come a long way to this point, but there is room for improvement.
“I was a woman in a non-traditional trade which was a big challenge and I have learned from that when I moved into my business in the 2000s,” she said. “It is hard, but I persevered and I am very successful with my business.”
For Horton, although the event is called International Women’s Day, she urges men to take part as well.
“We are welcoming anyone and it’s just a matter of being brave and saying ‘you know what, I am going to go and support these women in my community,’” she said.