Ruth Tait – författare

Many books have been written about the way business leaders manage their corporations, but little is known about how they have managed their own careers. Roads to the Top provides insights into how 18 business leaders of both the older and younger generations have made decisions about their careers, what fundamentally motivates them, what has been important developmentally, how have they balanced their personal and professional lives, what are their views on leadership and advice to others about how to make career decisions and get to the top.

In 1870, a young woman from Nova Scotia took charge of a 144-foot merchant square-rigged vessel on a voyage from New Orleans to Liverpool England, a distance of over 5000 miles, when the captain (Bessie's father) and First Mate fell ill with Smallpox. Stories of wooden craft of this size, travelling the seven seas, with masts and rigging that scrape the clouds of a stormy sky, are many. But, when an 19th century under-crewed, storm-wracked ship, is brought safely home by a woman skipper, it is a tale for the ages. Sister Sailor: The Remarkable Journey of Bessie Hall, an accessible digital graphic novel with accompanying notes (epub and pdf) brings you on board the journey of this sailor, who ably stepped forward to take the helm, to navigate and to stay the course until all were safely home.

In 1879, in colonial Toronto, an educated female physician was put on trial for daring to practice medicine in a country that did not allow women doctors. This short graphic novel chronicles an incident when a young servant woman, Sarah Lovell, was found dead three months after visiting Dr. Emily Stowe's office. That death set in motion a Coroner's inquest and a criminal trial that put Stowe's career, her freedom, and her family on the line. Based on verbatim court transcripts and newspaper accounts of the day, this graphic novel follows the true story of one of Canada's pioneering women doctors and suffragists, and the fight for women's right to practice medicine, control their own bodies, and be heard in a courtroom built for men.