CIM Reporter, 14 May 2014
More than 300 CIM Convention 2014 attendees gathered for the Women in Mining Reception on Tuesday 13th of May to discuss barriers holding women back from careers in the industry and what can be done to break down those walls.
Four years ago, Goldcorp developed “Creating Choices,” a program to train, develop and mentor women in the company. In the three years since its launch, the program has graduated more than 1,000 women to much success. “In any business, you have to have balance and the only way that you will achieve balance is by bringing more women into those male-dominated industries,” Anna Tudela, Goldcorp Vice-President of Regulatory Affairs and Corporate Secretary, told the CIM Reporter in the lead up to the convention. “I think organizations will realize that by bringing more balance into the organization it will be a win-win situation.”
“Creating Choices” is a voluntary program offered across the entire organization to all women, from the Board of Directors down the ladder to line workers. Since the implementation of the program, Goldcorp has done two impact assessments that have yielded positive feedback from participants and the supervisors of the women involved in the program.
Christine Marks, Goldcorp’s Director of Corporate Communications, spoke about the program in her keynote speech – replacing Tudela, who had to attend to a last-minute emergency – at Tuesday’s Women in Mining Reception and also laid out the challenges facing women in the industry. Marks thanked Tudela for all of her mentorship work within Goldcorp: “She sets the example by mentoring not just senior women, but women at all levels of the organization. It takes committed women who believe in what’s possible and are willing to work for it. Diversity takes women asking for it.”
This story has been changed to correct the misidentification of the keynote speaker.