MOOSE JAW, Sask. – Saskatchewan cabinet minister Janice MacKinnon jokes that her term as president of the Saskatoon Co-op was good preparation for her time as provincial finance minister.
Both organizations were nearly bankrupt and needed a tight hand to lead them back to solvency, she told a women in co-ops conference Nov. 8.
But for three other women outlining their own experience with co-operatives, the lessons learned were not always ones they wanted to undergo in life.
Turtleford, Sask. farmer Ferne Nielsen is a Saskatchewan Wheat Pool delegate who believes women should learn how to get ahead in organizations. She never had the chance to go to university, plunging from high school into marriage, farming and four children. But she became “an intellectual blotter” and took all the courses open to her and later bought her own farm, exchanging labor and cash for use of her husband’s machinery.
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She told women to push themselves forward and learn to take on public speaking and leadership tasks. However, she noted co-ops also are to blame for the lack of women on their boards because of the nomination and election process. She said often there is a perception that directors are hand-picked and the same men get in. She urged the local co-op, pool committee or credit union to advertise in the paper or try other democratic but creative means to draw new blood.
“Some of the people on our boards have been there since confederation,” she said.
Nielsen also suggested co-op boards hold an orientation for new members, that delegates and directors encourage each other to stretch and develop skills and that debates be carried out on the issues, not the personalities.
A lesson on how elections work was not lost on Kathy Gray, now second vice-president of the Saskatoon Credit Union. She was the only woman on a board of 10 and found that after-hours socializing by men left her with a power gap. She wanted to run again for an executive position but because she didn’t speak up, the men assumed she did not want to run. She assumed they knew she wanted to run again. She lost, and learned to leave nothing to chance in future campaigns.
Bit of both worlds
Working life was a mix of sexism and support for Rita Dumonceau, now retail manager of the Ponteix, Sask. co-op and a delegate to Federated Co-operatives Ltd.
Her first day on the job the man who hired her wasn’t there and the only other employee, a man, “hid in the tire bay” all day to avoid dealing with her. Customers were coming in and she had never run a till before. But she got through that day and the next year without a manager.
She was told not to lift the heavy pails or repair tires but she broke that rule one day when she was the only one around and a customer needed help. Her boss told her not to do that again. A new male manager was eventually hired. She switched jobs and later quit the co-op because of family difficulties. She didn’t know she could take a leave of absence and therefore lost six years of seniority.
Dumonceau started working for the co-op again after her marriage failed. This time she had a supportive boss who urged her to take all the training she could. With that advice and her experience, she was hired as manager of the Ponteix Co-op, a move she realizes was an act of “fortitude” by the board.
From her experience Dumonceau said gender should not be the main factor in hiring, but the ability to do the job. She said it would have been easier if she had been a man but she proved herself and “now the men ask for me when they need something, not my male staff.”
