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Parity Certification: Polytechnique earns silver
Recognize, support, and develop talented women: an ambition that Polytechnique Montréal - with one of the largest engineering student bodies in the country - has embodied for some time now. For Polytechnique’s personnel, the commitment to gender parity recently gained speed; the result? The university recently received yet another Parity Certification from the Women in Governance organization. Certified bronze in 2019, Polytechnique has how reached silver status.Recognize, support, and develop talented women: an ambition that Polytechnique Montréal - with one of the largest engineering student bodies in the country - has embodied for some time now. For Polytechnique’s personnel, the commitment to gender parity recently gained speed; the result? The university recently received yet another Parity Certification from the Women in Governance organization. Certified bronze in 2019, Polytechnique has how reached silver status.

“Our engineering university is fuelled by innovation, and in order to innovate we need be open to and aware of a variety of perspectives. As a result, we have teams that are diverse and that reflect society. We all need to try to bridge the representation gap between men and women,” states Annie Ross, Associate Director – Training and Research, Co-president of Polytechnique’s Comité institutionnel sur l’équité, la diversité et l’inclusion (Institutional Committee on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion).
“We’re conscious of the fact that there is work to be done in order to reach equitable representation of women at various institutional echelons. Polytechnique is very popular with students, and it’s important that we also be attractive to candidates in terms of employment as well – namely within the professorial corps and at executive levels. It goes without saying that we are continually examining our recruitment practices and our talent management methods. Whether in the sciences, technology, engineering, math (STEM), or elsewhere, women and men complement each other,” Ross concludes.
At present, the level of women within the professorial corps is 16%, while the rate is 43% for other personnel categories. While parity has not yet been achieved, the desire to create a gender-balanced workplace is genuine and palpable. Concrete measures undertaken by Polytechnique are what earned the engineering university the promotion to silver status in the 2020 round of certification.
“Parity Certification recognizes best practices within Canadian organizations that are enthusiastically cultivating gender equity in the workplace. In 2019, Polytechnique became the first university to earn this certification, and this year, the trajectory we’ve taken has once more been recognized and even applauded through this silver status. The dynamic of commitment to improvement in our organization is deeply rooted – we want to move forward, together,” highlights Patrick Cigana, Senior Advisor, Sustainable Development, and instigator of the certification project.
A cultural change
Numerous significant steps have been taken over the course of the past year. A survey for all personnel members investigating unconscious biases was developed in order to establish a clear portrait of feelings of inclusion felt by the various groups that comprise the Polytechnique community. In practical terms, the latter effort seeks to reduce biases, particularly during the recruitment process. Polytechnique also recently offered French-language editorial training – “La rédaction epicene” – which promotes and highlights more inclusive written communications.
In terms of training and research, Polytechnique hired Maria-Gracia Girardi, Advisor in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. Girardi is now the internal expert on the above matters, and a highly valuable resource who is also available to coach personnel. Polytechnique has also officially committed to the federal government’s Dimensions: Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Canada program, indicating a pledge to voluntarily eliminate systemic obstacles which may be present in the research sector. The overall objective? To reflect Canada’s diversity, including those individuals who are parts of under-represented groups, such as women, Indigenous Peoples, those who are differently-abled, visible minorities, racialized groups, and members of the LGBTQ2+ community. Another concrete realization was the production of a guide to demystify the “sex and gender-based analysis plus” assessment system, for use in planning research projects, to ensure genuine equity is achieved. Reading the aforementioned guide is now a non-negotiable step in the research project development process. By raising researchers’ awareness about the importance of adopting an intersectional approach, Polytechnique seeks to lead innovation that is even more ethical, thorough, and useful to society on the whole.
Lastly, the recent establishment of the Bureau d’intervention et de prévention des conflits et de la violence – BIPCV (Office for Conflict and Violence Prevention) has reaffirmed the importance of respect, integrity, and impartiality in an inclusive workplace and educational establishment.
Numerous other initiatives are also evident at Polytechnique. Explore the Women and Engineering website to learn more: https://www.polymtl.ca/femmes-genie/en
Lean more
Women in Governance website