This week, Catherine Daoust, engineer at Nova Bus and defender in the Professional Women’s Hockey League (LPHF), member of the La Victoire de Montréal 2023 team, answers our questions about leadership.
Published at 9:00 a.m.
With the prevailing discourse on the place of women in society, young women need more than ever female role models who break out of traditional roles. You are the living example that it is possible for a woman to be both an engineer and a hockey player. How did you make these choices?
For hockey, it was my brother who got me hooked. My mother would take my two sisters and me to the arena to watch my older brother play hockey. I saw him skating with his stick and puck, and then I wanted to try it too.
I later found that it was possible to play hockey long term and have a career by watching the Canadian team with Caroline Ouellette and later Catherine Ward.
For the engineering profession, if I hadn’t had someone in my family who said to me one day: “If you like physics and mathematics, it might be a good idea to look into engineering profession,” I wouldn’t have thought of it. At that time, I didn’t know exactly what an engineer was.
This Tuesday evening at the École de Technologie Supérieure (ETS), you are participating in the major G-Change conference, which aims to inspire the next generation of women for jobs in science, technology, engineering, digital arts and mathematics sectors. Why did you accept this invitation?
It’s important to show what path one must take to become an engineer and also to know that it is possible to follow this path while practicing a sport. Sport brings a lot of opportunities, and I want young women to know that. It opens a lot of doors, hockey.
At Cégep de Saint-Laurent, I completed my DEC in natural sciences while playing hockey. Then I was recruited by American universities. I was able to have an extraordinary university experience. It’s stimulating to get out of the house and live with your teammates.
If I didn’t play hockey, I would have a great career too, but I wouldn’t have had the opportunity I had to go play hockey abroad and have my studies paid for. I also want to send a message that can reach many people.
It’s so important to follow our passions! The reason I was able to perform well in hockey and in engineering was that I really loved what I was doing.
Are American engineering degrees recognized here?
Yes. By making the jump to the United States, I ensured that my diploma would be recognized in Canada. There is an agreement between the two countries for the bachelor’s degree in engineering.
If the American university is part of the agreement, we return to Canada with the American diploma and we can practice our profession. I chose the University of Minnesota at Duluth. I got a scholarship to study there, learn engineering and play hockey.
How do you prepare to be a pioneer in a profession and a sport?
I would say it’s more of a learning experience. I played minor hockey with the boys until I was 15, so I was used to interacting with the guys.
Then at university, there were a lot of men in engineering classes, but it was a situation I had gotten used to with hockey. We learn to react well and not feel personally targeted. We also learn to make our own place.
On my hockey teams, I had to show that I had it, my place, with my talent and my work ethic. Which also helped me in engineering.
I hope that what I have done through my journey will make it easier for those who come after me. If only by raising awareness among people in the workplace.
For example, when a woman arrives in a factory with a male colleague, the employees may have the reflex to address the man. I observed that the better I answered questions, the more employees saw that I knew what I was talking about, I gained their respect.
It’s longer than if I were a man, but it’s possible.
In your workplace, even if there are adaptations to make initially when you arrive in a new position, do you consider that we have finally arrived in 2024 or are we still in the 1960s?
It’s really 2024. I love my team, I love my department and they are people who also encourage me enormously in my hockey.
Every Monday, there is a big meeting with all the departments, then during the season, there was a moment dedicated to “where is Catherine, when is the next match?” “. It’s really very inclusive at Nova Bus.
It’s true that there are fewer women than men in my team, but that doesn’t show when we talk and work together. The job of an engineer is never boring.
I am a manufacturing engineer. I make sure that everything we develop in our product development team, we are able to industrialize, that is to say that it is easily assembled and feasible on our production line at Nova Bus.
