Women Wow

This International Women’s Day, March 8th, we’re chatting with a phenomenal female—Caroline Riseboro, president and CEO of Plan International Canada—about her organization’s work helping girls and women around the world, as well as her take on the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, gender disparities in the workplace and more. Go Caroline! —Noa Nichol

Hi Caroline! Tell us about Plan International Canada and your role within the organization.

I am the president and CEO of Plan International Canada, a global movement working to end gender inequality and promote girls’ rights. Founded in 1937, Plan International is one of the world’s oldest and largest international development agencies. Every day my team and I strive to build a world where girls everywhere can learn, lead, decide and thrive.

How are you and Plan International working to improve gender equality around the world?

Plan International Canada helps to catalyze gender equality around the world. Our goal is a world where women and men, girls and boys can enjoy power with each other, rather than power over each other, and where everyone can draw strength from the power within themselves. Working with communities, Plan International Canada digs deep to identify the root causes of gender inequality—those harmful gender norms and unequal power relations that undermine basic human rights in all areas of life, including families and homes, communities and nations, policies and politics—and understand their effects. Based on this we address the practical needs denied to women and girls due to the symptoms of inequality. This ensures that they have access to the basic necessities of life, such as food, clean water, health care, education and protection from violence. Our work doesn’t stop at meeting these needs, however, because addressing only the symptoms—or the conditions facing girls and women—doesn’t end inequality over the long term. We believe that communities become empowered to create change as a group and as individuals. We unearth and ignite these forms of power, so that women and girls can be agents of change in their homes and communities in partnership with men and boys.

What is your take on the impact of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements?

The #MeToo movement has demonstrated that when girls and women feel safe and empowered to share their lived experiences, they are a force for meaningful change. As the leader of an organization that fights for girls’ rights, I am energized by this current activism and advocacy on behalf of women and girls. Yet, as is too often the case, the stories of girls living in the Global South whose rights are being violated don’t seem to captivate our attention with the same urgency. This momentum cannot be restricted to any one region of the globe. Human rights are universal, and so too should be the battle to enforce them.

There’s been a lot of buzz around pay gaps and other gender issues in business/workplaces. What’s your take?

Business leaders and executives must embrace the need for change and lead by example. Throughout my career, I have discovered unwritten rules about perfection and performance that apply to women exclusively, and it’s clear they’re rooted in society’s long-held beliefs about what it means to be female. Not only are they harmful for women, they are harmful to society as a whole. As leaders, we need to acknowledge that deep-seated gender norms heavily influence how we work together, thanks in part to cultural expectations about the roles and responsibilities that men and women should have. Leadership under women might look different than leadership under men, and we need to stop thinking of different as bad. For me, this means building a work environment that accommodates family life and empowers-and rewards-all employees that seek more balance between professional and personal commitments. And in some cases, it requires calling out those that continue to perpetuate gendered expectations that harm our society as a whole.

In North America and beyond, what are some of the top issues impacting women?

Non-discriminatory laws and policies and gender parity in specific sectors are clearly not enough. The research Plan International has conducted has shown us that in order to transform attitudes and change the rules of society there must be a specific focus on power which, today, remains largely in male hands. These unequal power relations often remain invisible and internalized. Until they change nothing else will. It is not enough to make basic changes like hiring more women-we must ensure that appropriate conditions and support structures exist at all levels for them to thrive. Discriminatory gender norms can be challenged, power imbalances between women and men can be changed, but they must be confronted before young women arrive in the workplace because they start at home, continue at school and pervade every area of our society. If not tackled, the stereotyping that holds girls back and places unrealistic expectations of being tough and strong on boys, continues down the generations. We also need to find a way to begin engaging men and boys in this conversation and work—because women and girls cannot change these systems alone.

Back to Plan International’s work around the world, where does the focus on women lie and what are the benefits of improving women’s lives specifically?

While Plan International works with all levels and members of a community, including women, we actually put girls at the centre of our work. Every day, millions of girls around the world are denied their basic human rights—simply because they’re girls. In the Global South, millions of girls are denied their basic human rights, simply because they’re girls. In fact, girls in the poorest regions of the world are among the most disadvantaged people on the planet. They are more likely to live in poverty, more likely to be denied access to education, and more likely to be malnourished. And yet, studies show that when you invest in girls, the whole world benefits. If a girl has enough to eat, a safe environment, and an education, she’ll work to raise the standard of living for herself, her family and her community. And in time, she can even strengthen the economy of her entire country. We know that by unlocking the potential of adolescent girls, we can unleash the power of an entire generation.

Why, in your opinion, do we need more women in leadership roles?

We know that everyone benefits when more women are in positions of power and leadership. The evidence is irrefutable. Studies have shown that companies with more women on boards and in leadership positions on average financially outperform those with fewer women. In business, a profitable firm at which 30 per cent of leaders are women could expect to add more than 1 percentage point to its net margin compared with an otherwise similar firm with no female leaders. This represents a 15 per cent boost to profitability for companies in which 30 per cent of leaders are women. A report from CIBC in 2017, showed that having women on boards boosted the stock performance of S&P/TSX companies. Clearly, we need to start thinking of women and girls not simply as beneficiaries of change, but as change agents. But ultimately we don’t engage in this transformative work because of its economic pay-offs-although these are remarkable benefits. In the same way a man must fight for women’s rights not because he has a sister or a daughter, but because it is just and it is right; we too must fight for women and girls, not because it is good for the economy or job growth, but because it is just and it is right.

Personal question: what do you love most about being a woman?!

I love being part of a global sisterhood, particularly during this historic moment. Women are coming together, in all their beautiful diversities, to catalyze real change. I can’t think of a more exciting time to be a woman!

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