What was unique about this panel is that all the pan-
elists represented various sectors of the industry.
This made for another unique discussion and Q&A at
the end. Using a tool called Mentimeter, we invited
the audience to contribute their responses to ques-
tions, including: What is the value of women getting
together and having conversations like this? As pan-
elists were responding, the audience contributed their
responses via the Mentimeter app on their phones,
and a word cloud was generated (see graphic).
Our panel discussed perspectives on how we could
create space and opportunities for women to build
careers in urban forestry, arboriculture, and natural
resources, encourage more women to enter and
advance within the fields, and build a diverse and
inclusive workforce in the future. Part of this is being
more vocal about the diversity of careers available
to women as viable options. In addition, we can look
beyond the traditional or common partners (e.g.
industry, NGO) and make more diverse and com-
plimentary partnerships with, for example, health
networks, career centres, and recruitment agencies.
On the panel, I was happy to share the example
of Bartlett Tree Experts, an industry employer,
who held a three-day event in April 2018 at their
research Lab in Charlotte, North Carolina called,
Women in Arboriculture: Maximizing Talent. It
brought female employees together for networking
and skills training and was the first of its kind orga-
nized by an industry partner for female staff.
Our panel was also posed with this question: If
you could propose one concrete, next step action
toward strengthening the role of women in our
field and building equity—what would it be?
Responses included: offering formal and informal
training sessions (from climbing to pruning; writing to
research); formalizing cross-cultural and international
mentorship programs; and connecting to media.
It is empowering for women to feel they are not
alone, and that they are being heard. Creating
female peer-to-peer networks serves to inspire
others, share strength, and build a global support
system. I'm excited to see that this conversation
is ongoing on many online forums and in >>
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