Statistics Canada has published a podcast episode entitled Sylvia Ostry: Lessons From A Legend.

Dr Ostry was appointed Canada’s first and only female Chief Statistician in 1972, but she didn’t get there by playing by the rules. She was ambitious but grew up in a world where many thought that it was shameful to be female and have a career.

Sylvia was a Jewish woman in economics, and even after she earned a PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1954, she was denied a job with the United Nations because of her gender. Dr Ostry was a researcher and professor at the University of Oxford and from 1979 to 1983 and was the first female chief economist at the OECD, in Paris.  The podcast also goes behind the scenes to look at how she challenged herself to succeed, becoming both a respected economist and mother, and how she handled setbacks, and discrimination, all while staying true to herself and demonstrating the integrity for which she’s remembered today.

You can listen to the podcast here.

Photo by Elliot Sloman on Unsplash