I mentioned last week the terror in people’s eyes when they see a microphone.

The latest episode of the Women Talking About Learning podcast published on Tuesday is about confidence. It’s a compilation episode with contributions from many women talking positively about confidence.

What interested me was the number of submissions received with phrases like:

• Hope this is OK
• You might want to edit it
• I don’t think it’s very good
• Fingers crossed it works
• Feel free to chop off the end if you want
• Not sure this is what you are looking for

The podcast is a joy to produce because it celebrates women and creates a space for them to be who they are. It will help change things and it needs to.

The desire of these women to qualify their recordings shows just how far we need to travel to help create environments where women feel they have agency AND authority to speak without judgment.