0:00 So he shows up at the institution and he came in and he said, darlin, can you give me a coffee? And I before I could say anything else, he said, two creams and sugar. And he said, and can you find the deputy superintendent for me? And I looked at him and I said, you're talking to her and get your own coffee. 0:33 I applied for my first position in corrections as a probation and parole officer when I was 23. It was in 1979. Women just started to work as correctional officers around that time when I was beginning my career, so this was a whole new role for women was groundbreaking. I think in my early 20s, I was a little naive and I think I underestimated how challenging it was to be a woman working in very military like male dominated career path. My my wake up call was, I had finished my master's degree in criminology and I was applying for positions as probation and parole officer in Ontario. And I was interviewed by an all white male panel, for the for the position and the panel, were having a great time commenting on each one of the female candidates physical appearance. So as I was walking in, I could hear them laughing and joking about the woman who was interviewed before me, and then I could hear them talking about me as I was walking out. 2:04 It was a very male dominated very hierarchical, militaristic kind of environment to work in and you were quite isolated as a woman. You didn't have very many female colleagues at all, there were actually virtually no female role models for you as a woman. You were not, you know, one of the boys and so you were excluded from a lot of conversations and a lot of social activities outside of the workplace. I think of when I was a deputy superintendent at one particular prison, and I, I was acting as the superintendent for a couple of months while the superintendent was on an assignment. And when he came back, he assembled the entire management team in the boardroom. So there were about 20 men and me and he said to me, did you have a good time while I was away having ladies cosmetic parties. When I became a superintendent, all of my colleagues in all the other prisons were were men. My my boss in those days, never called me by my name, he always called me sunshine. So it was, those were the kind of conditions at that time. Some of the men that I worked with either supervising them or reporting to them were very fair and very progressive. But there was an undercurrent of sexism and sexual harassment. I certainly experienced sexual harassment myself and I knew of other women who experienced sexual harassment and even sexual assault in those days by superiors and sometimes by male colleagues. Women who did report and there was a real disincentive to complain, because what typically happened is if you complain, you were seen as a troublemaker, and you were ostracized, alienated by the male colleagues that you worked with and by management. 4:40 There was a very unfortunate situation in in the 90s, where at the correctional staff training college, there were allegations that female correctional officers had been sexually assaulted and harassed by male correctional officers who were there in training. And so a judicial inquiry was called into these allegations of criminal conduct. And I was asked to come in to the deputy minister's office to undertake a complete review and overhaul of correctional policies to establish workplace discrimination and harassment prevention policies. To look at the staff training college practices and so I was able to be on the ground floor of making some systemic change in the culture of corrections. 5:44 I think as a woman you had to, you really did have to work much harder than your male colleagues in order to advance, to have credibility, to be seen as a respected professional. So I did that I work very hard, I took on every possible assignment that I could, extra assignments, additional responsibilities, and ultimately, I did receive opportunities and I did, I found opportunities and sought out opportunities myself. So through a combination of those things, and through support from some very fair minded colleagues, both men and women. Over time, I was able to advance through the ranks of Correctional Services. Today, I would say, there's definitely been progress made since I started out in my career. There are policies now around workplace discrimination and harassment and that kind of conduct is no longer tolerated. It's dealt with and people are held accountable, which was not the case back then. Certainly, sexual discrimination and harassment still occurs. But it's not as prevalent as it used to be, and it's dealt with. And there are a lot of efforts to promote diversity and inclusion, there are policies around accommodation of fair parenting and family responsibilities. So it's a more women friendly environment than it used to be. It's a microcosm really, of the sexism in society, but it's more pronounced in these kinds of environments. So it's a journey, and it's not over it needs to be continued.