Breaking the Glass Floor: CAF Culture Change Through Mentorship for Women

Table of Contents Introduction The Glass Floor Horizontal Hostility Sisters-in-Arms Mentorship Conclusion End Notes About the Author Canadian Global Affairs Institute Introduction The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) are committed to “addressing and preventing all forms of systemic misconduct and supporting those who have been harmed,” to achieving “sustainable and intersectional cultural change” and to creating “an environment where members can reach their full potential and contribute meaningfully to the Defence of Canada.”1 The spectrum of harms that CAF culture change seeks to address includes lack of inclusivity, bullying, threats, unsupportive environments, intimidation, violence, micro-aggressions and harassment. Lt.-Gen. Jennie Carignan, chief of professional conduct and culture (CPCC), stated: “Culture is every one of us, and one of the biggest ways our culture impacts us is simply how people treat each other every day.”2 Note that CAF culture is not homogenous and varies from element to element and regiment to regiment. Yet, to foster the culture change required to address and prevent misconduct, not only is a holistic approach necessary but also there must be a greater emphasis on bottom-up approaches to transforming CAF culture. In this piece, I will focus on the need to break the glass floor and how mentorship for women is one way this can be accomplished. One piece of the culture change puzzle is improving diversity and representation in the CAF to better reflect the Canadian population. White men account for approximately 39 per cent of Canada’s available workforce but account for about 71 per cent of the CAF population. Women account for approximately 48 per cent of the Canadian workforce, yet only account for 18 per cent of the CAF population.3 These statistics demonstrate that the CAF is far from reaching its goal of increasing the representation of women to 25 per cent by 2026. While the CAF has unfortunately leveraged diversity to enhance operational effectiveness, diversity efforts should focus on equity. Under-represented or marginalized people would be more willing to join the CAF if its culture were welcoming to them. Likewise, they are unlikely to join an institution where the burden to improve culture is placed on their shoulders. Hence, fostering a welcoming culture for all is imperative.4 An unwelcome and hostile culture also limits women’s ability to advance as barriers persist. In all CAF elements (army, air force, navy), women are mostly concentrated in administrative, logistics and intelligence roles. In fact, many women in the CAF pursue traditionally feminine occupations, and this is seen in civilian life as well.5 While there are more women in the air force and navy than in the army, women’s participation in combat trades across these elements remains extremely marginal.6