Celebrating Achievements and Rallying for Equality
March 8th is International Women’s Day – a global day that both celebrates the achievements of women and aims to rally people for women’s equality. The campaign theme for 2022 is #BreakTheBias.
In recent conversations, women at MCAP speak up about the impact women have made in the mortgage industry, how MCAP is supporting women in their career journeys, and the continuous journey to #BreakTheBias.
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Women have become a homebuying force
Women have a powerful role in the mortgage industry. As Megan McDonald, Senior Vice President, Single Family Sales explains, women are becoming a powerful homebuying force. More and more women – both married and single – are buying homes than ever before, a trend that is present in both Canada and the U.S. “Owning a home has moved from being a by-product of marriage to being a milestone of achievement,” she says. And with so many women being a powerful force on the buying side, “you need to have strong female voices on the selling side and the side of enabling the home buying experience.”
Over her 17 years at MCAP, Megan has seen significant change in the role of women. When she first started, less than 20% of mortgage brokers were women – now, there appears to be much greater balance and gender diversity.
Anna Gomes, Vice President of Single Family Underwriting, has seen more and more women enter the mortgage industry over her 20 years at MCAP. For her, the shift is visible and meaningful at every stage of the home buying experience. “Women bring a fresh perspective to the industry in terms of looking for potential solutions and not doing things the way they’ve always been done. In an industry that can be very numbers driven, they bring a human component. There is also a level of innovation that comes with diversity of any kind.”
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Women at MCAP
At MCAP, Megan is witnessing the hiring, mentoring, and promoting of women within her organization. 61% of the MCAP workforce is women, with 54% of people managers or senior roles being held by women.
Grace Carr, Associate Director, Servicing Initiatives, agrees that MCAP has made strides toward gender equity. A parent of a six-month old baby, she credits the company’s enhanced parental leave with the opportunity to focus on both her family and her career. “One of the largest barriers to advancement for women is balancing decisions around having a family. MCAP encourages parental leave for everyone, which helps make it less of an issue.” A recently announced new policy, where non-birth and birth parents can receive top-up during parental leave, speaks to the commitment around supporting women and families.
As an out and queer individual, Grace also feels that the organization has created a safe space for all employees to bring their whole selves to work. “Being visible as an out and queer leader at MCAP is a serious responsibility for myself, because I am helping to make room for some of those people who are coming up behind me. My position and my presence lets people know that MCAP is a place for you – it’s a place of belonging.”
MCAP also has a large role with industry associations, which influence how things move forward in the industry. “MCAP chooses to step up and a lot of females have stepped forward into senior roles as board members and chairs,” says Megan.
“We can break the bias by focusing on building meaningful connections through trust, respect for all, empathy and curiosity. I am an ally and advocate for providing the women on my team with opportunities to showcase their talents across the department and be their best selves. The result has been a high-performing group in a company that embraces all employees for who they are.”
— Neischa Bazzey, Associate Director, Business Technology, Commercial Mortgages Group
Diversity, representation, and inclusion matter
“You can’t be it unless you can see it,” says Grace, speaking about the importance of representation at all levels of an organization. “We’re really lucky to have Penny [St. Antoine] leading our division,” she adds. “She’s a visionary leader who cares about women in the workplace – she is instrumental in developing female leaders.”
“The more diverse our team is, the better our ideas are to improve the homeowner experience,” says Penny, Senior Vice President, Single Family Operations. “We want to be able to look at it from all perspectives and improve that experience to reach out to all homeowners in a way that meets their needs.”
Janet Boyle, MCAP’s Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer, adds that diversity is essential to the success of both individuals and organizations. “Having diverse perspectives and diverse representation ultimately elevates everyone that is able to be part of the experience. I feel when I’m able to be with very different thinkers, different personalities, people who are super creative, others who are very analytical, it elevates my own way of thinking and how I approach solving the problem at hand.”
“I feel very grateful to be working at a point in time where an awareness of gender bias actually exists. The first step is being aware of the problem and then we can start to break it down by speaking up.”
— Victoria Imola, Director, Shared Services
A continuous journey
Janet adds that achieving equality and diversity is a constant work in progress. “It’s a continuous journey in terms of ensuring there is broad representation of voices at the table.”
Achieving representation can take time, which MCAP has and continues to take seriously. MCAP continues to ensure there is a robust pipeline of diverse talent. “With limited staff turnover, it can take a really long time to see change,” says Susan Feldman, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations & Investment Management. Despite these obstacles, the Development Finance Group is close to 50% female overall, with women occupying several positions of leadership. “To break the remaining barriers, we are trying to foster a culture that is focused on growing our talented female underwriters into originators, by including them in client meetings and offering individual and group mentoring.”
Penny believes in regular self-assessment to ensure leaders are taking the action needed for change. “We have to ask ourselves important questions as leaders – are we doing enough? Is there inherent bias built into our people processes? As leaders, are we addressing unconscious bias within ourselves and our teams?” she says.
All women agree that holding each other accountable is key to maintaining awareness and momentum in the pursuit of equality. Says Janet: “As an organization we have to continue to hold all our leaders accountable for ensuring that we continue to support a diverse workforce, that we are continuing to make sure we have a deep and rich pool of candidates and that our employee base is very broad. It’s important to keep this as a very topical conversation.”
On International Women’s Day, MCAP is celebrating the achievements of the women in their industry yet remains committed to raising awareness, rallying their colleagues in the pursuit of equality and ensuring the conversations continue on this day, and every day. #BreakTheBias