Sask. Wildlife Federation feted for creation of women's summit
First-of-its-kind event in Canada focused on gender parity in conservation
The Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation is being celebrated nationally for creating a Canada-wide forum for women in the historically male-centric realm of habitat and wildlife conservation.
The Canadian Wildlife Federation has named the provincial affiliate the 2023 recipient of the Doug Clarke Memorial Award, given in recognition for an “outstanding conservation project” done in the past year.
That project was the SWF'S debut of the Advancing Women in Conservation (AWIC) Summit in 2022, a first-of-its-kind event in Canada coined to be a space for women to discuss experiences in the many diverse, areas of environmental work that still fall short of gender parity.
Courtney Devins, director of communications and marketing, accepted the award on behalf of the SWF earlier in June, at the annual awards celebration in Whitehorse.
“It was humbling,” she said. “And unexpected. We aren't doing this summit to win any sort of accolade. It was really to get more women involved within our own organization, provincially, and in organizations even nationally.”
Devins is part of the group that conceptualized the annual AWIC Summit, and she sits on a national steering committee dedicated to the same topic that organizes and co-ordinates events.
“It is really a space for women to come and feel empowered, and share some of their challenges with other women,” said Devins, about the event.
The idea came from an internal realization that conservation — which is an umbrella for sectors including research and science, recreational sports like hunting and fishing, environmental advocacy and more — is still a field populated with more men than women.
Within the environmental workforce in Canada, according to a survey done in 2021 by Eco Canada, women or gender non-conforming people represented 44 per cent of workers, to men's 56 per cent.
Devins said in taking a closer look, that ratio dips lower when considering women in leadership or governance positions.
“Women are well-represented through volunteering, education and entry-level work, like admin, but we really started noticing that you find less women holding positions of authority, at a level where decision making occurs.”
The SWF'S own board of directors revealed anecdotal proof, which Devins said reflected realities seen elsewhere, like how women only made up 10 per cent of Saskatchewan's conservation officers in 2022, according to the Saskatchewan Association of Conservation Officers.
The realization prompted action, said Devins, and so the SWF created the summit. The organization also began pursuits to diversify themselves.
“We had to self-reflect a little bit,” she admitted. “And so we have started on this journey to get more women representation on our board, an internal look at how we want to be leaders and want women to feel welcome.”
The first AWIC Summit was held in Saskatoon in November, bringing together 98 attendees representing six provinces to network and talk about their experiences in the many areas related to outdoors, wildlife and conservation.
Topics spanned from women's contributions in the field, sharing challenges and barriers and brainstorming solutions to improve representation.
All the speakers hosted were women, including prolific underwater diver and expert Jill Heinerth, Saskatchewan Polytechnic researchers, a local female game hunter and one of few female conservation officers in the province.
“Each woman brought something different to the table,” Devins said. “A different aspect of conservation, different challenges, and different tips and tricks on how to break those barriers.”