Toronto-based Rose Ritchie, an associate partner at global IT advisory firm Citihub Consulting, had a revelation with a friend of hers when they were discussing the women they have helped over the years.
“It stems from the fact that a former colleague of mine and I remained in touch,” says Ritchie, who has more than 20 years of experience in financial technology. At Citihub, Ritchie oversees program management, transformation projects and large system integration efforts.
“We came to the revelation that between the two of us we know many women we’ve mentored for more than 20 years,” Ritchie says. “Why don’t we pull them together and start a networking group? Let’s invite a bunch of people and see who’s interested.”
That discussion led to the start of the Businesswomen of Toronto Networking Group, sponsored by Citihub Consulting. The group held its inaugural meeting last week and the event attracted more than 30 women, most of whom work for major Canadian banks. However, a chiropractor and a designer were in attendance and there were representatives from the Canadian health care realm, the oil and gas industries and the public sector, which is exactly what Ritchie and other group members want.
Rose Ritchie, associate partner, Citihub Consulting.
“Diversity is really important,” Ritchie says. “We want to see women from other fields who have had other experiences.” The issues that women face in the male-dominated financial services industry are often the same as those encountered by women in other fields.
“In the end, we’re helping each other, supporting each other,” Ritchie says. The new, women-only group is an environment where women can feel comfortable talking about the challenges they face in their fields without any inhibitions, she says.
However, Ritchie says that members want to keep the size of the group manageable. “We want to make sure that it doesn’t turn into something that’s a social event,” Ritchie says. “We want women to leave these sessions with tools and takeaways. If it gets too large, it gets too difficult to monitor that.”
Members of the group felt encouraged to meet on a quarterly basis and are likely to meet again during January 2015, Ritchie says. The group is still open to new members.
If people think that these kinds of networking groups are not needed, they should consider the recent remarks by Microsoft’s relatively new CEO Satya Nadella who said that women that work in the IT industry should not ask for a raise, should give in to the system and let the rules of karma decide their pay and promotions.
Not surprisingly, Nadella quickly apologized for his statements. But the incident underscores the fact that some outdated mindsets have to be challenged and that networking, mentoring and a little support may go a long way to help women – and all people – achieve their goals. It might even generate good karma.
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