Keynote speaker recalls the bias she faced in high-hazard industries ahead of her Women in Safety Summit speech
Three decades of research into the barriers women face in high-hazard workplaces shows the same patterns of bias, invisibility and burnout persist today as they did decades ago, according to Stephanie Benay, MBA, Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRSP), principal of Calgary-based Benay Leadership & Safety Advisory. Benay brings that finding to the Women in Safety Summit Canada 2026 in Toronto on October 21, where she opens the event with a keynote titled Unapologetic: How Women Lead on Their Own Terms, drawn from a book of the same name due out later this year. Her argument: the safety profession does not need to fix its women, it needs to redesign the systems that rely on them.
Three decades navigating high-hazard, male-dominated industries
Benay's career began in the flight safety department of a major Canadian airline before she moved into consulting, then into industry roles spanning oil and gas, BC Hydro and post-secondary education.
"High-hazard industries is where I've spent a lot of my time," she said. "But regardless, those high-hazard industries, the industries I've been in have been male-dominated."
Benay said the research behind her book found those barriers have not meaningfully shifted in three decades, even as more women reach senior roles.
"I think that you will see some women in higher-level positions, you know, exceptional women doing exceptional work, but we're still navigating the bias, the burnout, and the invisibility associated with that," she said.
That pattern echoes findings in this year's Top Women in Safety report, which profiles ten leaders working to advance safety culture across Canadian industries.
During one layoff planning session earlier in her career, Benay said the instruction from leadership was blunt.
"We'll get rid of all the women who are married because they've got somebody else to provide for them," she said, recalling the comment.
Speaking up about bias like that has cost her.
"I've been laid off. I've been let go from organizations for saying that's not cool and that's not acceptable," she said.
Sponsorship, not mentorship, opened doors
Asked how she reached senior leadership roles despite those barriers, Benay pointed to sponsorship.
"It was the women who'd walked through the door before me," she said. "We talk a lot about mentorship, but we don't talk about sponsorship, and we don't talk about the responsibility of being a woman who's gotten through the door and turned around and given somebody else a hand up."
She extends that idea to her prescription for systemic change.
"It comes with the collective empowerment of women having the right dialogue to recognize the problem, have the right tools to address the issue and the truth, and recognize that they can in fact lead on their own terms, and collectively we're stronger together," she said.
The summit's 2026 agenda extends that conversation with an afternoon panel on gender-based violence and harassment in the safety profession, addressing hazards on infrastructure projects and in remote work camps.
What delegates can expect at the Women in Safety Summit
The Women in Safety Summit Canada 2026 runs October 21 at the Automotive Building, Exhibition Place, in Toronto, its first year in the city and its first as part of COS Live, a two-day national program that also includes the Canadian Safety Summit and Canada's Safest Employers Awards. Delegates can review the summit's full lineup of sessions and speakers for 2026 before registering.
"I have attended every single Women in Safety Summit since its inception, and there has not been one where I don't feel empowered, acknowledged, heard, understood, and valued," she said.
She encouraged people of all genders to attend, saying the sessions offer insight "regardless of where you are in your career." Benay will also be attending the Canadian Safety Summit, held the following day as part of COS Live.
Asked what she most wants attendees to take from the keynote, Benay drew a distinction.
"I didn't write a fix-yourself book," she said. "I wrote a fix-the-system book, as a guide for women who are tired of contorting themselves to succeed."
