There is no one silver bullet for achieving gender balance. But visible gender balance on public platforms can help create lasting change.
The last part in our trilogy on gender equality in decision making is about visibility. Building on Parity, Equality And Equity – The Trilogy In Decision Making To Achieve Gender Equality (Part 1) and Challenging Patriarchal Structures (Part 2), it’s important to have visibility of women in these arenas if we are going to make any headway.
Why Gender Equality is Essential in Public
Where are all the women?
So, a key strategy in ensuring that women and men have equal opportunities to participate in the decision-making processes is to ensure that they are visible in the spaces where policy is discussed, even before being made. – What comes to the table as legislation is the final episode in multiple rounds of consultations, proposals, amendments and impact analysis, and , you knew this was coming, women are absent or underrepresented in every one of these important steps to making a policy law.
Women must have an equal voice in boardrooms, government bodies, and other influential institutions, and equally, they must be seen, and heard, on a conference stage and throughout the decision making consultation process. To have sustainable, lasting change, it is important to engage men as allies in the quest for gender balance. This means involving them in conversations about gender equality and having them listen to the debate, so that we can work together to challenge stereotypes, sexist attitudes and behaviours, and demolish the patriarchal structures.
The Power of Allyship: Working Together Towards Equity and Equality
“Ladies, if you are not around the table, you are on the menu” – Mirella Visser, Managing Director Centre for Inclusive Leadership: A wonderful woman who I am proud to call a friend and a motivator for the work I do on gender equality.
What Mirella spells out very clearly is that if women are not visible, they are not even considered. Decisions are made for them without even being consulted.
Think about it, if we are not around the decision-making table, where the policies and actions are made about us, how can they include us?
We are all happy to scream and shout about the appalling treatment of women in Afghanistan, because there is no visibility of women in the Taliban governance nor any inclusion of females in their decision making processes, but ask yourself:
Where is the visibility of women in the decision-making structures in your country?
If women are not included, if women remain invisible, then we will not see the change that we need to have a gender balanced society, with the parity, equity and equality necessary to bring global stability and sustainable development for the planet.
What I love most about Mirella is that she doesn’t stop at wanting to get women around the table, she also insists they should chair the meeting to ensure everybody’s voice is heard.
It is connecting with people like Mirella, and all the other women and women’s organisation that I work with, that has taught me that if we are to have the change we want to see, then we need to collaborate, not just amongst women, but also with the great men who believe gender equality is the right thing for society.
The 21st Century is the era of CO – Coworking, Collaboration, Communication and Collateral – our human capital, of which 50% of the world’s human capital are women.
How can we challenge stereotypes and create a more equal society?
Having been an international public speaker for the last 30 years on the topic of gender equality, and Entrepreneurship, and having worked in the European Union institutional environment, Mirella’s words resonated with me, not just about board rooms, but also regarding the visibility of women in conferences, in policy making institutions and especially within sectoral debates.
In fact, it was the invisibility of women that was the momentum I needed to start taking action to improve the visibility of women in public influencing spaces.
As I have already explained in the last blog, I had tried, and failed, to take action to increase the number of women in the EU institutions, but that didn’t stop me trying again.
So, for starters, let’s stop treating women and men as if they are different species.
We need to start seeing each other as equals. We are equal but we are different, and that’s to the benefit of humanity and the planet.
We are equal but we are different, and that difference has to count in the policy making and decision-making arena. Women and men are not the same, and we need to take this into account when developing legislation, frameworks or guidance that impact both genders. Sustainable gender equality is only possible if we recognize and embrace the fact that men and women are different. Only then can we develop policies that work for everyone.
We need to start valuing each other's contributions equally. We need to challenge the status quo and stand up for what's right.
We need to be compelling voices for change, which means we have to lead by example.
In our own lives, we can strive to be fair and just, and treat everyone with respect regardless of their gender. But, of course, it will take more than just individual effort to bring about true change.
We need systemic reform as well – in our economy and workplaces, our educational and health establishments, and in our institutions.
Selecting just one example, let’s look at gender roles. We need to challenge the idea that there are certain things that women should or shouldn’t do simply because they are women. Men can be just as good at childcare and housework as women, and vice versa. And equally women are as competent as men to sit at the boardroom table, or to head global corporates, governments or ministries in any sector of the economy or social welfare system.
This means that women can also effectively, and competently speak on subjects of which they are experts. Yet, we don’t seem to see as many women as men in the public arena.
Why is that?
Impact of Gender Imbalance in Public
Invisible Women
Gender inequality exists when there is a disparity between men and women in terms of their access to resources, opportunities, and power.
This includes decisions about policies and programs that affect gender equality, as well as decisions about how resources are allocated, how opportunities are offered, and how power is given.
But if the only people speaking are men, then as I have said before, the debate is already skewed.
It’s time to change the way we think about gender roles and expectations.
Emma Watson puts it very eloquently: “It is time that we all see gender as a spectrum instead of two sets of opposing ideals.”
This is where my second example comes in:
Not only are women not given the same opportunities as men to participate in decision-making processes; whether it’s at work, in politics, or in other areas of life; but they are also not given the same opportunities, even rights, to raise their voices as men do.
... Sounds like we are living in the 17t Century? – No, it’s still a common practice today.
There are many ways in which parity, equality and equity can be achieved in practice. However, if as a women we do not have a platform to raise issues concerning us, females, then we are effectively being silenced.
So how can we create the platform and the space to speak out?
The Role of Education and Activism in Achieving Equity and Equality
Before reading on, tell me, what actions could you consider implementing to create a platform or the space to speak out?
The first response is to create an all-female space or platform of your own ……but a word of warning, that’s divisive.
Have you ever noticed, that when there is “woman” or “female” in the title of a conference, or workshop, there are only ever women in the room, with 1-2 men if you are lucky?
Why is that?
Because its subject focus is “women”, not society, and therefore men think it doesn’t concern them!
We cannot solve the gender equality question unless we include men.
We cannot be heard unless those in the room are listening, including the men.
Gender equality is NOT a separate policy debate, it’s an economic and social imperative to get this right.
So, creating separate platforms do not work, we have to create a space on the existing platforms.
Now, we know men consciously, or subconsciously, blindly, support and promote other men. Reason: They only like people like them. It’s also much easier to recommend someone you know, or who is like you, than to select someone different.
Hence, we see all male boards, and all male panels, and the excuse we hear is that : “There weren’t any women who fitted the profile.” – And WE know, that’s just not true!
In reality, they never even tried to look for someone female!
Unconscious Bias or just an Excuse? – All Male Panels
Making women visible
So, we decided to change that. - “We”, meaning all the women in Brussels who were fighting for greater visibility of women in the decision - and policy-making bubble!
We started very simply by raising the subject of the lack of women in the institutional environment, and their absence in conference, brochures and in social media photos.
How?
Every time there was an all-male panel, we took a photo and put it on Twitter with the name of the conference, the conference hashtag, the organisers, and #allmalepanel.
Because we had a coordinated action, our retweet and likes outnumbered the tweets of the conference, and because we were using their hashtags also, our tweets also featured on the conference screens!
I can tell you it made me, and several others, very unpopular…Including with some of my female colleagues who were being pressured by their male friends to ask me to stop.
And we were not just tweeting: We were also sitting on the front rows of the conference ready to raise our hands for the first questions, which would always be, “Can I ask why the panel is only men?”
This would cause some uncomfortable body language shifting of the speakers, but more importantly, it then shaped the questions and answer session to have a gender focus, with each speaker saying how women were important – lip service we know, but the issue had been raised.
Sometimes the question is more important than the answer!
Within weeks, it started to have an effect, the media took an interest, and we started to see changes. Organisers started looking for women – as Moderators!!
We were quick to jump on this and say: “One woman on a panel, or as a moderator, was still an #allmalepanel”.
We then hit the jackpot, when a Director General of the European Commission, Robert Madalin, announced he would not sit on a panel if it consisted only of men! Others quickly followed suit, frightened of being tagged on Twitter. However, many dinosaurs were still not willing to change.
On one occasion I remember being in a conference and a female colleague pointed out a great tweeting opportunity of another #allmalepanel. I asked her to do it, but she said it was my area of expertise …. basically, she knew the reaction was not going to be favourable.
As I have said before, I am not here to make friends, I am here to make a difference.
So, I tweeted the picture, and tagged the President of the EESC Employers Group of which I was a Member and who was hosting the event, and who was on the panel.
At the coffee break – well, let’s just say, that the whole room went silent when the President marched over to me and screamed at me for tweeting the photo. His reasoning was that he had not organised the event, he was just hosting and was a speaker on the panel.
He raised his voice an octave higher when I suggested that this was not the image the EESC Employers Group wanted to portray, and as the host he could have suggested some of our female colleagues, who were experts in the subject, to have been on the panel.
The “gentleman” was then quietly removed from the room to calm down.
Intimidation, arrogance, abuse of power and fear are all used to silence people who are driving real change.
The lack of diversity on all-male panels is a persistent problem in many industries, but especially in political and legislative fora.
The most common excuse for the lack of diversity is that there are simply not enough qualified women to fill these roles. However, this excuse is simply not true. Women are experts in every field, and their voices are essential in shaping the conversation around important issues.
All-male panels lead to conversations that exclude the perspectives of half the population. When women are excluded from these conversations, it reinforces the notion that their voices are not valuable or worth hearing.
This is an incredibly damaging message, and one that needs to be changed. By increasing the representation of women on all-male panels, we can send a powerful message that OUR voices matter and that, like men, there are qualified and competent women we are experts in any field on the agenda.
A model for holistic gender balance in public
Of course, when someone tries to stop me doing something, I remember how my ex-husband tried to stop me by beating me, and I get a new wave of momentum to move up a gear!
So, things didn’t stop there. All the women, now joined by some amazing and very supportive men, started to create lasting strategies to drive sustainable change.
A new organisation was established in Brussels – The Brussels Binder.
The Brussels Binder became the go-to resource for improving gender diversity in policy debates. The Brussels Binder became an answer to the problem, or should we say excuses, that organisations were using as to why they did not have women on their panels – “They could not find a female expert in the field”.
The Brussels Binder, as its name suggests, is a list of women in every field of policy making and so much more. So, now there was no excuse for a lack of women on panels, or on boards, as there is a full directory of the most amazing women who are experts and speakers in their field, which can be easily accessed online. www.Brusselsbinder.org
The team behind the Brussels Binder are young women who will be future leaders in Europe, women who believe that women have a right to be seen and heard. The model they have created is one that can be easily replicated anywhere in the world.
The #allmalepanels quickly gathered momentum, and The Brussels Binder organised, within the first-year, a monitoring and evaluation exercise: Connecting with all those like me who were tweeting about all male panels, in the month of June, they recorded all the tweets and social media relating to all male panels. This resulted in a snapshot report which highlighted not only those institutions which were failing in presenting women in conferences and policy debates, but also those organisations who had made a dramatic shift in their representation of women by the time the second year’s report came out.
The Brussels Binder has gone from strength to strength, and it is a standard in Brussels now that all male panels are few, with speakers often refusing to sit on such panels.
By the same token, for the last 4 years I have refused to sit on all female panels for the same reason, - Where the subject has been important to me, I have highlighted to the organisers that all same sex panels fail in the objective of promoting gender equality, and then suggested to them 2-3 competent males to speak on the panel.
We cannot criticise all male panels if we accept all female panels. – Madi Sharma
It’s about not only challenging the stereotypes we have lived with for centuries, but about creating a new dynamic which demonstrates the new ecosystem we want, where everyone benefits from equal representation.
Only by making these changes will we start to see real progress towards equality.
Why Gender Equality is a Human Right, Not a Luxury.
Parity alone is not enough to achieve gender equality. We need to move beyond simply counting the number of women in leadership roles and instead focus on creating an environment of true parity, equality and equity, where everyone has a voice at the decision-making table.
Giving women an equal voice in decisions that affect their lives is crucial to achieving gender equality. When women are involved in decision-making, they can help shape policies and practices that are more inclusive and responsive to women’s needs. They can also challenge discrimination and provide invaluable insights into the challenges faced by women on a daily basis.
However, true equality cannot be achieved until all forms of discrimination are eliminated. This means actively working to create a culture of inclusion and respect for all genders, as well as actively challenging gender stereotypes in the workplace and in society.
Until these changes have been implemented, achieving true gender equality will remain an elusive goal.
Of course, there is so much more to this conversation, so we will continue the debate in our future blogs.
I am not a certified coach, but I am an experienced leader who has been working on personal development and communication for several decades. Me and my team can guide and advise you. I don’t bite, and I don’t charge unless I know I can help. All initial conversations are free and confidential.
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Gandhi said, “You must be the change YOU want to see”
Madi says, “You must be the change YOU want to see – NO EXCUSES!”
Founder Madi Group www.madisharma.org
Founder Women’s Eco-nomic & Social Think Tank www.westtworld.com
Author Madi No Excuses! www.madinoexcuses.com
Entrepreneur, International Speaker, Freelance Journalist
Listed as 1 of apolitical’s 100 Most Influential People in Gender Policy in 2018
Linked In Madi Sharma
Twitter @MadiSharma1
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