DATE: May 11, 2020

SUBJECT: More white men-tors please

 

As an Indigenous woman who is trying to build a business, I wanted to write a letter to publicly thank the Yukonstruct people for their leadership and vision. 

 

I saw on Facebook they are advertising a business startup bootcamp in Whitehorse (what communities?) with a diverse team of all-white, all-male mentors. 

 

You can tell how hard they worked to ensure diversity because three of the mentors work for Yukonstruct's sponsors and another one is actually the executive director's father. 

 

Yukonstruct's real efforts at diversity also extend to making sure women's business interests are represented. Four of the mentors are in the mining and energy sectors and one is in aviation which, as we all know, are the primary industries for female and Indigenous startups in the Yukon. 

 

It is a good thing that female and Indigenous entrepreneurs in the Yukon are not interested in the goods and services industry. Even if we were, Yukonstruct has kindly let us silly women know that the Yukon doesn't have any good businesswomen to look up to anyway. 

 

Oh, by the way, I think it's perfect that most of the men-tors are employees as opposed to people who have their own business or startup. That's awesome for a startup bootcamp.

 

If I lived in Whitehorse I would for sure pay good money to be mentored by six white men with experiences I could never relate to. 

 

Mashi' Cho