International Women’s Day 2021: Celebrating Women in Agriculture and Food #ChooseToChallenge

Every year on March 8, International Women’s Day marks a global occasion to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women and a call to action for accelerating gender parity. According to the UN, no country has yet achieved gender equality.* As we continue to strive for a more equitable world, days like International Women’s Day are an important reminder to take inventory of where we are in achieving a more inclusive society and also make commitments to learn and drive change whether through individual or collective action.

At TELUS Agriculture, we’re committed to promoting and celebrating diversity and inclusiveness within our team, our company and the communities where we live, work and serve. Diversity breeds innovation. Elevating and leveraging different voices and ways of thinking empowers us with better insights, decisions and solutions. Embracing our individuality, lived experiences and backgrounds and being open to a diversity of thought is an important part of the culture TELUS has built as an organization. The same goes for the agriculture and food industry. We believe diversity and attracting new perspectives and talent is critical to our industry’s continued success and growth.

The theme of International Women’s Day 2021 is “Choose To Challenge” and calls on everyone to take individual responsibility for our own thoughts and actions and to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality when we see it. We are excited to incorporate this theme into how we operate and the work we’re doing.

In an industry that is traditionally seen as male-dominated, TELUS Agriculture is committed to bringing more women to the table with an inclusive culture and hiring and employment practices, enabling our team with training around diversity and unconscious bias, challenging conventional perceptions of women in agriculture, food, science and technology and celebrating and bringing visibility to the vital contributions and roles women play in our food system.

TELUS’ values centre around challenging the status quo and the courage to challenge ourselves, our team and our company to innovate, change, collaborate and grow. As part of the TELUS family, these values are intrinsic at TELUS Agriculture. They will shape us as we grow, empowering us to better represent the diverse communities we work and live in, guide our culture of diversity and inclusion and drive our mission of creating a sustainable food future where everyone has equal opportunity.