Advancing women’s economic security
USask graduate Barbara Battiste (BA’67) reflects on the impactful work she undertook at her ‘dream job’ at Minnesota’s legislative Office on the Economic Status of Women
By SHANNON BOKLASCHUK
University of Saskatchewan (USask) graduate Barbara Battiste (BA’67) is known as a changemaker for her efforts to enhance women’s economic security in the U.S. state of Minnesota, where she currently resides.
In fact, on her final day of employment with the nonpartisan legislative Office on the Economic Status of Women (OESW) seven years ago, the Minnesota state legislature declared it to be Barbara Battiste Day, in honour of Battiste’s public policy work and her advocacy for women’s employment rights and pay equity.
Battiste was proud to be recognized for her hard work and her impactful career.
“I think I did some really good things,” she said. “I loved it; I love research.”
Battiste’s path to becoming a successful policy analyst and researcher wasn’t linear but can be traced back to her days as a student at USask in the 1960s. Born in New Mexico, Battiste moved to Saskatoon from the U.S. with her family at the age of eight, when her father, in management with a potash company in New Mexico, was transferred to the company’s new Saskatchewan operation. After graduating from high school at the Academy of Our Lady of Sion in Saskatoon, Battiste set her sights on post-secondary education. She recalls meeting an engaging geology professor during a first-year orientation session, and that helped set her on an academic path in science.
“He talked about mudslides and earthquakes and volcanoes, and I thought, ‘How exciting!’ So I went into geology,” she said.
Battiste honed her research skills as a geology student in the College of Arts and Science, earning her Bachelor of Arts degree in geology in 1967. She thrived at USask, playing on the women’s basketball team and enjoying the sense of community that the geology program had to offer.
“I loved it,” she said of her time as an undergraduate student. “I loved being in geology. Everybody knew each other.”
After graduating with her degree, Battiste didn’t immediately become a geologist but rather pursued her longtime goal of travelling. She had read John Steinbeck’s 1962 book, Travels with Charley: In Search of America, and it inspired her to return to the U.S. to travel throughout her home country. Battiste soon realized that one way to travel was to become a flight attendant, so she took a job with Pan Am. However, since the airline flew internationally rather than domestically, she didn’t have the opportunity to explore the U.S. through her new role; rather, she travelled throughout Europe, the Caribbean, the South Pacific, and Asia. At the time, American soldiers were abroad as result of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, and Pan Am regularly flew the soldiers out of Vietnam to international locales for their R&R—rest and recreation—weeks.
“They could go to Sydney, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Honolulu, Bangkok, and Taipei,” Battiste said. “We had the contract where we’d fly into Vietnam, pick up the boys, take them to R&R, and take them back after—so I flew there many, many times. I flew to Guam and Okinawa, and I met my husband-to-be playing tennis at the officers’ club in Guam. It was so exciting.”
When Battiste’s husband-to-be later left the Army, he moved to Minnesota to attend law school, and Battiste accompanied him. It was there that Battiste began working as a geologist with the state’s environmental agency. As a result of this work, she was invited to testify on environmental bills before the state legislature, which sparked a keen interest in politics and public policy. She decided to leave geology after about five years in the field to form a lobbying firm.
“I started lobbying for some non-profits, all the Girl Scout councils, and a lot of small businesses at the Capitol. I lobbied for about seven years, and then had children and dropped out for 15,” she said.
Battiste gave birth to her two children when she was 37 and 39 years old and as a result left the paid workforce for 15 years to take on the primary caregiving role in the family home. When Battiste looks back on that period of her life, and when she reflects on her work with the OESW, she notes how caregiving roles can disproportionately impact women economically.
Battiste faced challenges when her marriage later came to an end, and she was diagnosed with cancer. She sought a return to the paid workforce and began to focus on enhancing her resume and upgrading her computer skills. To that end, she volunteered with a non-profit organization that assisted underemployed women in finding positions and offered support to entrepreneurial women who wanted to start their own businesses.
“They wanted a volunteer to run a new grant program they had. Through that, I was meeting all of these women who were in their 50s or older. They were smart, they were well educated, but they were underemployed,” Battiste said. “Mostly, because of caregiving duties, they hadn’t really focused on their career, and that became my passion—to help older women become economically secure.”
At the age of 62, Battiste returned to post-secondary education to pursue a Master of Liberal Studies degree at the University of Minnesota—which she obtained at the age of 66. She was able to afford the tuition thanks to a program for seniors in her state that enabled her to pay just $10 per academic credit.
Through her graduate studies and her volunteer work, Battiste became interested in researching the bias and discrimination that older women can face in the paid workforce, and she subsequently consulted for organizations such as the Minnesota Women’s Consortium and the Pay Equity Coalition. That work inspired her to take on the director role at the Office on the Economic Status of Women when it became available.
“When this job at the legislature opened to direct this policy office, it was just the perfect fit,” she said.
Battiste began working at the OESW in January 2014 with a mission to focus on the economic wellbeing of women, particularly women who were single mothers, women who were new immigrants to the U.S., older women, and women who were underemployed. She also researched income disparities between women and men.
“I found that the biggest factor in the gender pay gap is that women, over their professional lives, spend less hours working than men,” Battiste said. “The reason for this is their caregiving duties: they take time off when they give birth; they are usually the ones who leave work early for parent-teacher meetings, who take time off when their children are sick. Later in life they curtail work hours to care for an ailing spouse or aging parents, even retiring early to do so.”
As the director of the OESW, Battiste was interested in talking to women about their lived experiences. During the summer months, when the legislature took a break, she travelled to small communities throughout Minnesota to hear directly from the women living there.
“I would have listening sessions, and I would just invite women to come,” she said. “The only words I would say were, ‘Tell me what’s working for you economically and what’s not working for you economically.’ ”
Battiste learned through those listening sessions that while issues around childcare and concerns about finding suitable employment were important to the women, what was top of mind was transportation.
“It’s one of those basic building blocks. How do you get better education and how do you get to that factory that has plenty of jobs if you don’t have a car or if there’s not public transportation when you get outside the city? So, transportation was the big issue, and that was sort of a revelation to legislators to see that,” she said.
Today, Battiste looks back fondly on her time at the OESW and the change that was made through her work there. She continues to be an advocate for lifelong learning and believes people can find their passion at any age, just as she did.
“I got my dream job at age 69. For older workers: you can put your life together and you can go back to school,” she said. “I was so scared, because I saw all these young people. But the fact is when you’re older you’re so focused.”
Now 77, Battiste is open to exploring new possibilities and interests. She is a breast cancer and bladder cancer survivor and a former marathon runner who has developed resiliency in the face of life’s challenges. While she no longer competes in marathons, she remains very active, exercising regularly and engaging in activities such as pickleball. She also returns to Saskatoon to visit her siblings every two years and was in the city earlier this month, which provided her with an opportunity to visit the USask campus and to attend the Homecoming football game on Sept. 13.
“It’s a beautiful campus,” she said.
Battiste is proud of her USask roots and she enjoyed seeing the campus on a busy weekday, with students heading to classes, gathering for coffee, and studying in the library. She came to campus with her brother and her sister-in-law, Art Battiste (BA’66, Educ’66) and Angeline Battiste (BA’64, Educ’65, BEd’67), who are also proud USask graduates.
“They so love this campus,” she said.
When asked if she has advice for new USask graduates, Barbara Battiste said she encourages them to “expand their horizons;” for her, that meant working for Pan Am for four years. While she is no longer a university student, she still enjoys the back-to-school excitement that September brings. Visiting USask recently and seeing the students around her was an uplifting experience for Battiste, who admires the students’ hard work and their dedication to education.
“I think their values are in the right place, and I have hope for our world when I see them,” she said.
In fact, on her final day of employment with the nonpartisan legislative Office on the Economic Status of Women (OESW) seven years ago, the Minnesota state legislature declared it to be Barbara Battiste Day, in honour of Battiste’s public policy work and her advocacy for women’s employment rights and pay equity.
Battiste was proud to be recognized for her hard work and her impactful career.
“I think I did some really good things,” she said. “I loved it; I love research.”
Battiste’s path to becoming a successful policy analyst and researcher wasn’t linear but can be traced back to her days as a student at USask in the 1960s. Born in New Mexico, Battiste moved to Saskatoon from the U.S. with her family at the age of eight, when her father, in management with a potash company in New Mexico, was transferred to the company’s new Saskatchewan operation. After graduating from high school at the Academy of Our Lady of Sion in Saskatoon, Battiste set her sights on post-secondary education. She recalls meeting an engaging geology professor during a first-year orientation session, and that helped set her on an academic path in science.
“He talked about mudslides and earthquakes and volcanoes, and I thought, ‘How exciting!’ So I went into geology,” she said.
Battiste honed her research skills as a geology student in the College of Arts and Science, earning her Bachelor of Arts degree in geology in 1967. She thrived at USask, playing on the women’s basketball team and enjoying the sense of community that the geology program had to offer.
“I loved it,” she said of her time as an undergraduate student. “I loved being in geology. Everybody knew each other.”
After graduating with her degree, Battiste didn’t immediately become a geologist but rather pursued her longtime goal of travelling. She had read John Steinbeck’s 1962 book, Travels with Charley: In Search of America, and it inspired her to return to the U.S. to travel throughout her home country. Battiste soon realized that one way to travel was to become a flight attendant, so she took a job with Pan Am. However, since the airline flew internationally rather than domestically, she didn’t have the opportunity to explore the U.S. through her new role; rather, she travelled throughout Europe, the Caribbean, the South Pacific, and Asia. At the time, American soldiers were abroad as result of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, and Pan Am regularly flew the soldiers out of Vietnam to international locales for their R&R—rest and recreation—weeks.
“They could go to Sydney, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Honolulu, Bangkok, and Taipei,” Battiste said. “We had the contract where we’d fly into Vietnam, pick up the boys, take them to R&R, and take them back after—so I flew there many, many times. I flew to Guam and Okinawa, and I met my husband-to-be playing tennis at the officers’ club in Guam. It was so exciting.”
When Battiste’s husband-to-be later left the Army, he moved to Minnesota to attend law school, and Battiste accompanied him. It was there that Battiste began working as a geologist with the state’s environmental agency. As a result of this work, she was invited to testify on environmental bills before the state legislature, which sparked a keen interest in politics and public policy. She decided to leave geology after about five years in the field to form a lobbying firm.
“I started lobbying for some non-profits, all the Girl Scout councils, and a lot of small businesses at the Capitol. I lobbied for about seven years, and then had children and dropped out for 15,” she said.
Battiste gave birth to her two children when she was 37 and 39 years old and as a result left the paid workforce for 15 years to take on the primary caregiving role in the family home. When Battiste looks back on that period of her life, and when she reflects on her work with the OESW, she notes how caregiving roles can disproportionately impact women economically.
Battiste faced challenges when her marriage later came to an end, and she was diagnosed with cancer. She sought a return to the paid workforce and began to focus on enhancing her resume and upgrading her computer skills. To that end, she volunteered with a non-profit organization that assisted underemployed women in finding positions and offered support to entrepreneurial women who wanted to start their own businesses.
“They wanted a volunteer to run a new grant program they had. Through that, I was meeting all of these women who were in their 50s or older. They were smart, they were well educated, but they were underemployed,” Battiste said. “Mostly, because of caregiving duties, they hadn’t really focused on their career, and that became my passion—to help older women become economically secure.”
At the age of 62, Battiste returned to post-secondary education to pursue a Master of Liberal Studies degree at the University of Minnesota—which she obtained at the age of 66. She was able to afford the tuition thanks to a program for seniors in her state that enabled her to pay just $10 per academic credit.
Through her graduate studies and her volunteer work, Battiste became interested in researching the bias and discrimination that older women can face in the paid workforce, and she subsequently consulted for organizations such as the Minnesota Women’s Consortium and the Pay Equity Coalition. That work inspired her to take on the director role at the Office on the Economic Status of Women when it became available.
“When this job at the legislature opened to direct this policy office, it was just the perfect fit,” she said.
Battiste began working at the OESW in January 2014 with a mission to focus on the economic wellbeing of women, particularly women who were single mothers, women who were new immigrants to the U.S., older women, and women who were underemployed. She also researched income disparities between women and men.
“I found that the biggest factor in the gender pay gap is that women, over their professional lives, spend less hours working than men,” Battiste said. “The reason for this is their caregiving duties: they take time off when they give birth; they are usually the ones who leave work early for parent-teacher meetings, who take time off when their children are sick. Later in life they curtail work hours to care for an ailing spouse or aging parents, even retiring early to do so.”
As the director of the OESW, Battiste was interested in talking to women about their lived experiences. During the summer months, when the legislature took a break, she travelled to small communities throughout Minnesota to hear directly from the women living there.
“I would have listening sessions, and I would just invite women to come,” she said. “The only words I would say were, ‘Tell me what’s working for you economically and what’s not working for you economically.’ ”
Battiste learned through those listening sessions that while issues around childcare and concerns about finding suitable employment were important to the women, what was top of mind was transportation.
“It’s one of those basic building blocks. How do you get better education and how do you get to that factory that has plenty of jobs if you don’t have a car or if there’s not public transportation when you get outside the city? So, transportation was the big issue, and that was sort of a revelation to legislators to see that,” she said.
Today, Battiste looks back fondly on her time at the OESW and the change that was made through her work there. She continues to be an advocate for lifelong learning and believes people can find their passion at any age, just as she did.
“I got my dream job at age 69. For older workers: you can put your life together and you can go back to school,” she said. “I was so scared, because I saw all these young people. But the fact is when you’re older you’re so focused.”
Now 77, Battiste is open to exploring new possibilities and interests. She is a breast cancer and bladder cancer survivor and a former marathon runner who has developed resiliency in the face of life’s challenges. While she no longer competes in marathons, she remains very active, exercising regularly and engaging in activities such as pickleball. She also returns to Saskatoon to visit her siblings every two years and was in the city earlier this month, which provided her with an opportunity to visit the USask campus and to attend the Homecoming football game on Sept. 13.
“It’s a beautiful campus,” she said.
Battiste is proud of her USask roots and she enjoyed seeing the campus on a busy weekday, with students heading to classes, gathering for coffee, and studying in the library. She came to campus with her brother and her sister-in-law, Art Battiste (BA’66, Educ’66) and Angeline Battiste (BA’64, Educ’65, BEd’67), who are also proud USask graduates.
“They so love this campus,” she said.
When asked if she has advice for new USask graduates, Barbara Battiste said she encourages them to “expand their horizons;” for her, that meant working for Pan Am for four years. While she is no longer a university student, she still enjoys the back-to-school excitement that September brings. Visiting USask recently and seeing the students around her was an uplifting experience for Battiste, who admires the students’ hard work and their dedication to education.
“I think their values are in the right place, and I have hope for our world when I see them,” she said.