Halifax Screening of Pioneers in Skirts

[guest blog post] Eva Martinez, Vice-President of WIA-Canada

As part of International Women’s Day, Women in Aerospace Canada and Women in Science and Engineering Atlantic co-hosted a screening of the film Pioneers in Skirts.  We were compelled to share this movie with our community after watching it with our own teenage daughters; in large part because of the quality of the conversations that the film triggered between us and our daughters.

The film and the story that it tells established a safe platform for us moms to share our own career experiences and in turn, for our daughters to speak about their own ambition and the lens through which they see their futures.

We wanted more people to have those same powerful conversations.

The turnout at our screening – before COVID-19 paralyzed our communities – was a diverse mix of students, educators, parents, and career men and women.  Their attendance a testament acknowledging the role they play in closing the gender gap in the workplace; everyone plays a part.  This incredible movie about ambition was the perfect way to initiate reflection and discussion about the erosion of women’s career ambitions and what can be done to combat the biases that threaten a woman’s potential.

From the opening sequence, a montage of news stories about the gender-based challenges women face in the workplace, to the parting scenes as the credits roll, the movie grabs and holds everyone’s attention.  After the film, we asked the participants to reflect and discuss the scenes or moment that had the biggest impact on them; what they felt the main message of the film was; and what everyone can do to help young women as they transition from school to the workplace.

  • We saw fathers connect with the message about the role they play in empowering their daughters.
  • We heard stories of women successfully navigating the barriers.
  • We celebrated the successes that come when boys and girls, men and women work together.
  • We acknowledged the importance of strong leadership to lead organizations through these much-needed changes.
  • We realized that coming together only strengthens our voices and our confidence to call out gender biases.

The takeaways were “we are not alone,” “we’re all in this together,” and “we all have the power to drive change.”

I strongly encourage families to come together, watch the film, and talk about it afterwards – especially as you practice social distancing around COVID-19.  Parents should talk about their own experiences and the skills they’ve developed to combat gender biases in the workplace.  Students should be encouraged to let their ambition fuel their goals and to see that there is immeasurable power in tackling these biases together instead of trying to confront these alone.

Through these conversations, we see that gender parity is an achievable goal and that the more we talk about it, the stronger we become.

Eva Martinez, Vice President, Women in Aerospace Canada

Movie Endorsement from M3AAWG

We screened a preview of Pioneers in Skirts to a group of cyber security super heroes back in February. We knew they enjoyed the movie, but wow! Today they endorsed it!!

Thank you M3AAWG!!!

Here’s a snippet of what they had to say — 

OUR COMMITMENT IN M3AAWG TO DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION – A “PIONEERS IN SKIRTS” ENDORSEMENT

M3AAWG leadership invited the filmmakers of Pioneers in Skirts to join our meeting in San Francisco to deliver a keynote presentation sharing their experiences about why they made the film and what impact they hoped for. After the keynote, M3AAWG leadership sat down to have a one-on-one conversation with the filmmakers to talk about the importance of diversity and inclusion in the organization based on the film and how the Pioneers in Skirts documentary is an excellent catalyst for starting the fruitful dialog needed when an organization wants to build a more inclusive culture.

The filmmakers were kind enough to give M3AAWG members a preview screening of the movie after the day’s meeting sessions were complete and the feedback from members was amazing. Change starts with creating empathy for what others are experiencing and the movie has a story that does just that.

The screening leaves viewers with an understanding they did not have before and a feeling of hope and a drive to do something to change the culture – to act. It might be the very personal step of catching your own bias or the much bigger step of admitting there is a systemic problem that requires a resolution. Either way, people left the screening realizing the enormous size of the problem. Achieving a diverse and inclusive workplace requires an investment we ALL have to make.

With the extremely positive response and feedback from our member community for the Pioneers in Skirts film, M3AAWG became an official supporter of the documentary and highly recommends other organizations in the industry view the trailer on their website and reach out to the filmmakers to understand more about their incredible journey.

By Janet Jones, M3AAWG Board of Directors Vice Chair; Diversity and Inclusion Chair; and Data and Identity Protection Committee Co-Chair

You can read Janet’s entire statement here on the M3AAWG blog.

Security Skeptic Endorses Pioneers in Skirts

We met Dave Piscitello at a cyber security conference. He had just won a lifetime achievement award for fighting DNS and online abuse, and we followed his special moment with a keynote about Pioneers in Skirts. After we spoke of our mission and why we started this massive journey — Dave stepped forward to offer his assistance. He wanted us to achieve our goals.

He wants a better world for his daughter.

He’s a Pioneer.

Here’s a snippet of the article he wrote on our behalf: (thank you Dave!)

Pioneers in Skirts: An Innovative Movement to Identify and Combat Bias in the Workplace

Monday, 08 April 2019

I recently had the opportunity to preview a documentary, Pioneers in Skirts, by Ashley Maria and Lea-Ann Berst. The film is a character-driven documentary addressing how women and girls with pioneering ambitions combat bias and sexism in our culture.

Through candid conversations of women who’ve encountered that bias, and most importantly, women have overcome bias to succeed when circumstances conspire against them, the movie seeks to encourage cultures worldwide to adopt gender parity.

I watched the documentary in a male dominated ballroom during a recent security conference. It’s real. I’ve raised a daughter to be a dreamer, to believe she can do anything, and I recognized biases I wouldn’t have imagined having. This is an important film for every work environment, and perhaps particularly for cyber security, where women confront gender discrimination in the work place, while collaborating, and sadly, at prominent security conferences.

Read full story on the Security Skeptic website here: https://www.securityskeptic.com/2019/04/innovative-movement-to-identify-and-combat-bias-in-the-workplace.html

A Movie Commentary – Dr. Hope Hills

Hope Hills

March 11, 2019

Dear Ashley and Lea-Ann,

One of the many things I love about the movie, Pioneers in Skirts, is that it creates the awareness for both women and men that rigid gender roles and biases are still a part of our lives and culture – and they truly affect us all. This film opens the doors for all of us (in all our roles: mothers, fathers, daughters, sons) to feel the impact of shattered dreams.

What I loved about the way that you tell this story is that instead of focusing on holding on to anger, Ashley tells the story with her own voice; inviting us to “increase our response-ability and decrease blame.”

Anger is often a necessary wake-up call. It can help us set healthy limits (if we don’t have to hold on to it to protect ourselves). 

Pioneers in Skirts calls us to become aware of the anger and pain — and encourages us to respond by creating the space to get real work done between us.

In the film we see boys and girls truly enjoy working together, with girls often taking charge and even winning in robotic challenges. They are great examples for adults!

Personally, I watched the film and found myself acknowledging there was still mourning to do over the lost chances to physically build things as a child. But I soon realized there is also celebrating to do for overcoming that rigid thinking of “girls don’t build things” and remember: in my thirties I built a bookcase to fit into a very tight place in my kitchen. Yay, me!

The story lets us connect with others. We see real people of all ages working to reject rigid roles, create new freedom and recover dreams for themselves, their children, and our world.

This is a gift! It ultimately allows us to connect with the feeling and longing for our birthright to be our full selves. And I can’t wait to see the movie included as part of D&I training and leadership coaching work!

To learn more about Hope I. Hills, Ph.D., BCC, check out her bio at the Circle Consulting Group. You can see her in the theatrical version of Pioneers in Skirts too! We respectfully, and lovingly, call her Dr. Hope 🙂