The questions are familiar, just not for the men on stage.
“How do you balance work and family?” one man is asked.
“Do you think you’re assertive enough?” another is questioned.
“Have you ever felt guilty for prioritizing your career?”
The man on stage pauses, then laughs, saying, “Nobody has ever asked me that before.”
These aren’t quotes from the Toronto stage — not yet, at least.
They’re moments from past Toast events in Calgary and Vancouver, where the “Men in Tech” panel invites male leaders to sit in the discomfort women often face when applying for jobs in tech.
This June, the panel is coming to Toronto for the first time as part of the Toast Summit. The goal is not to embarrass anyone, and in fact it’s designed to create empathy you can feel.
The 2025 Toast Summit will be held June 20 at The Quay in Toronto.
Toast is a membership-based collective working to get more women hired, supported, and promoted in the tech industry. They connect women with trusted companies through a curated job board, coaching, and run programs like the Champions sponsorship model to address the gap between talent and leadership. Through events like the Toast Summit, they create space for honest conversations about equity and push companies to build more inclusive, accountable workplaces.
It’s a full-day gathering that brings together women in tech, allies, and senior leaders who are ready to talk about what needs to change. The sessions cover everything from workplace bias to AI in hiring, but the format is what sets this event apart.
The agenda is structured to make room for truth, not polish (although Toast pulls that off anyway). This is a summit for people who are tired of empty gestures and ready for progress.
A summit rooted in the reality of women in tech
Toast was founded in 2022 to confront the systemic barriers facing women in the tech industry — from persistent pay gaps to the isolation of being the only woman in the room.
While women earn the majority of STEM degrees in Canada, as of 2023 women still hold only 23% of tech roles nationwide, Toast says.
The leadership numbers are even lower.
For too long, women have received guidance in place of advancement, and feedback instead of opportunity.
Toast flips that dynamic.
Through its recruitment partnerships with more than 100 companies, a membership community that offers upskilling and career support, and a sponsorship program where men in tech champion women into roles, Toast helps women land impactful positions — and thrive once they’re there.
The Toast Summit is where those experiences surface in public.
Not in panels filled with jargon, but in stories that are lived, complicated, and shared onstage without apology.
The “Men in Tech” panel has become a signature session at Toast Summits, and its format is simple: Ask men the kinds of questions women in tech are used to hearing. Then watch the room shift, and the men squirm.
The questions feel silly at first, but that’s the point.
At past events, the panel has sparked laughter, awkward silences, and meaningful conversations long after the microphones turned off. It lands because it doesn’t preach.
It makes the experience real. Many leaders talk about empathy, but there’s something about watching that disconnect happen in front of you.
You can’t unsee it, and you can absolutely feel it.
Toronto’s audience can expect that same shift, but on new ground. This will be the panel’s first appearance in the city, and based on past responses, it will likely be one of the most talked-about sessions of the day.
Designing an environment that matches the message
Another key session, “Showing Up When It’s Hard,” dives into what leadership looks like when things fall apart. It explores the emotional cost of working in systems that were not built with equity in mind.
Christine Tatham, Chief People Officer at Redbrick, will moderate a conversation about navigating burnout, speaking up, and making decisions that don’t always align with what the culture rewards.
These aren’t curated leadership anecdotes — they’re the kinds of stories that rarely make it into conference keynotes because they feel too raw, too personal, or too risky.
At Toast, that’s the point. The event creates space for the kind of honesty that doesn’t fit neatly into a LinkedIn post.
That same philosophy is embedded throughout the agenda.
Instead of segmenting topics into “women’s issues” or “diversity tracks,” Toast treats equity as central to every conversation. Leadership, hiring, mental health, allyship — they’re all interconnected. And the stories told on stage reflect that.
Toast’s approach to programming isn’t just about what happens on stage. It’s about how the entire space is designed. That includes free on-site childcare for attendees, a sober happy hour to foster inclusive networking, and wellness options like yoga and meditation during the “Choose Your Own Adventure” hour.
These choices send a message: if tech culture is going to change, the infrastructure of our events has to change too. The spaces we build reflect the values we say we have. Toast follows through.
As CEO April Hicke puts it, “Tech doesn’t need another glossy conference with the same voices on repeat. Toast is where people come to challenge the status quo, back bold ideas, and meet the people actually building the future.”
For an industry that can reward appearance over substance, that shift is both necessary and refreshing.
The Toast Summit takes place June 20 in Toronto.
