As I’ve said before, I get asked to contribute to magazines, podcasts, etc and won’t unless there’s at least an equal split of men and women speakers.
One recently followed up to this response with:
We’ll try and make that happen re the gender balance
Anon
To quote Yoda, ‘do or do not, there is no try’. I have the privilege of being asked but the journalist should use their (male) privilege of asking women too.
As I posted on International Women’s Day, this is an ongoing activity and men – yes, all men – have to do more with our privilege to make things better. I’d drafted this post to this point and then saw this message yesterday:
I asked the organisers and they said:
A great point, Andrew. To be frank, several were asked but none were available to work on this particular project at this time. That’s simply how it worked out, but not for lack of effort to pursue #diversity
Again, someone tried.
We need to do better. This stuff matters – it matters a lot.
In the current circumstances in the UK, where women feel attacked more than ever and some men are using #NotAllMen in the way #AllLivesMatter was thrown about last summer, we have to BE better.
I’ve not said much about how things have been in the last couple of weeks; I may have privilege to say things but my voice doesn’t need to be heard. My actions do.
I will continue to challenge these things – integrity doesn’t have an off button.
#ItStartsWithMe
Lost and Desperate 