For young women who dream of breaking barriers, a strong mentor can make all the difference.

There is no doubt that women are heavily underrepresented in the trades, sciences and sports with gender disparities higher than most other industries. But there are those who brave the gap and challenge the norm, stretching and evolving daily to create a legacy that didn’t previously exist and giving new wings to the potential of those who come behind. This is our tribute to them.

Director’s Vision for ‘What If She Could’

Waterloo Region, Canada is the STEM capital of the world. Many of the leaders, including a Nobel Prize winner, are female. I grew up here and went to these institutions so I always knew there were strong female professionals in these fields, but I didn’t realize that wasn’t always the case elsewhere. This film features real phone conversations I had with some of these leaders who told me about their experiences in the private sector, how bad the gender disparity is and what’s being done to make it better. What I got from it that struck me most is that they attribute a lot of their success to female mentors, and their fondest memories of those mentors were not usually direct lessons taught to them but the small moments or faraway moments where they were just observing. The impact was in the representation. That struck me as pretty powerful and we let that be our guide with What If She Could?