There are still barriers to take sledgehammers to, but relentlessly strong representation is fueling female empowerment throughout Tofino’s businesses and organizations, according to Tofino Long Beach chamber of commerce executive director Samantha Hackett.
“We only have anecdotal data, but we know that proportionally, compared to other communities, we have more female entrepreneurs and leaders overall throughout our business community and organizations in general. They are absolutely crucial to how we operate,” Hackett told the Westerly News in an interview leading up to International Women’s Day.
She added Tofino has a long-standing and deep-rooted history of prominent female role models and has fostered a culture and lived experience that empowers girls growing up in the community to set zero limits on themselves.
“As they grow up, seeing is believing. They have to be able to have seen it throughout their childhood and adolescence to be able to translate into them actually acting upon that and being able to see themselves in those roles. That goes for all ages. They have to continue seeing it,” she said. “In general, coming from outside of Tofino, when you see leadership roles dominated by males, it doesn’t create that culture of accessibility for females. That’s the sort of thing the whole world has to shift and, thankfully, in Tofino we’ve got this microcosm where we have shifted it a little bit.”
She added the barriers women face around advancing into leadership roles were on full display at out-of-town conferences she attended during her previous career within Tofino’s hospitality industry.
“When we would go to conferences outside of this area, being a female leader was not the norm and you could just see that and feel that,” she said. “I think that’s something that we do a great job of, supporting each other as leaders locally and that female dynamic has always been helpful for me. I hope other people feel that and we continue to lift each other up.”
She pointed to Tofino’s Queen of the Peak surf competition as a solid illustration of women motivating, celebrating and supporting each other.
“Even if you’re not surf-oriented, it’s just seeing women doing cool, powerful things and having a presence in all of those spaces,”she said.
She said the long-established female representation has forged a fabric of accessibility and a culture that sees women in leadership roles as unsurprising, adding that societal norms and traditional relationship roles are finally being pushed towards extinction.
“There’s lots of women that work and the dad stays home and you actually see that sort of role-reversal in the community,” she said.
She said traditional family roles have long created barriers for women tasked with the lion’s share of household and family responsibilities.
“It is harder for women to stay the extra few hours at work or be putting their time in that our society demands for people to start businesses,” she said. “Starting a business is not a 40- hour work week and to become a leader or manager in most organizations is not a 40 hour work week…Your whole structure around your home life and everything has to be able to support that.”
She said the tight-knit and talkative Tofitian community provides insight into different family structures and helped motivate her and her husband towards non-traditional roles.
“It’s a small community and knowing everybody and knowing their situations really helps people to then see themselves there…It gives you that context and I think something we do very well is having those community pieces and people telling their story and being very open about it and lifting each other up. We still have that very grassroots sharing of information and supporting each other and not everything has to be structured, which is good,” she said .
Hackett and her husband have two daughters, ages 4 and 7, and she spoke to the stigmatism around him being a stay-at-home dad and her the salary-earner, admitting that she herself struggled to overcome her own internal battle to break free of societal norms.
“Not only do I have that role reversal, but I have two girls. I am hyper-aware of a lot of the stigmatism that I deal with,” she said, adding that she was raised in a traditional household.
“The hope is that because my kids are growing up in Tofino and with the opposite (parental structure), they won’t have that built into their fabric. I think where a lot of women struggle with being able to break out of the traditional mould is that we’re so self-aware that we’re spending enough time with our kids and we’re always trying to do better and spend more time at work, but spend more time with the kids and all of these things to try to counter the culture of women staying home…I think people expect that women can do everything all at the same time.”
She hopes to see non-traditional family dynamics become less note-worthy in the near future.
“It’s something that is very empowering to be able to do it and live it and continue it. We tried it and it worked and we both felt good about it. But, it’s definitely something that always comes up here and there whether it’s from friends or family or just in the day-to-day talking to people; the surprise or the ‘Good for you’ and getting the kudos where it’s just, well, no, this should be normal and this should be something that shouldn’t matter one way or another,” she said. “It doesn’t make me any better or my husband any better. This is just the way that we’ve chosen it. Because it gets so much attention, I think that reinforces some of the reasons that it is still looked upon as odd or different or new.”
Hackett has been a leader with Tofino’s Girl Guide program since 2008, providing safe and inspiring spaces for girls to learn new skills, collaborate and share and she said she’s been proud to see how well the girls represent the West Coast.
“It’s about having that all-female environment to explore so many different things…and to be exposed to new skills and activities that, especially as a female, they wouldn’t maybe traditionally try but may actually really like,” she said, adding experiencing a Girl Guide camping trip early in her tenure highlighted the tenacity earned through a West Coast upbringing.
“The West Coast girls were so resilient. They knew and understood camping…They just were more outdoorsy and open to being out in the rain and you could tell that their upbringing had been different,” she said. “That was the moment that I realized what is different about raising kids on the West Coast. It’s what they’re exposed to; still being connected to the land and the outdoors and, especially for girls, that is just not something that’s prioritized,” she said. “That has always kept me unwavering in the fact that this is the right place to raise our family and especially our girls.”
