As a Dad Without Daughters ... I Still Support Women
Rohit Bhargava
Keynote Speaker | Trend Curator | Non-Obvious Company Founder | Best-Selling Author | Listener
I am a dad of boys. We don't really have a hashtag like a #girldad.
Today is International Women's Day and I want to show up for women in a meaningful way. Like many men, I'm not always sure exactly how to do that.
Two years ago on this day, I took the stage at SXSW to talk about non-obvious ideas. About halfway through, I talked about #IWD and the many conflicting messages that men often hear about how to be involved. Some news stories at the time advocated for men to just shut up and listen. Others suggested that men have been silent for too long and need to be more vocal in support of women. Perhaps we need to do more of both ... but it can be confusing.
As a result, when many men start to share their perspective - they feel like they need to begin with a justification for why they even care in the first place. Usually it starts with the same five words:
As a dad of daughters ...
I don't have daughters. I also don't have sisters. But I shouldn't need to have them in order to care deeply about creating a better world for women. This starts with teaching my two boys what it means to support and respect women, and how to grow into kind and strong men. That will always be my biggest and most important job.
I was born the year that International Women's Day was first created by the UN. My entire career has been deeply influenced by women that I have had as mentors and bosses. Before I became an entrepreneur, most of my working life was spent in a role where I reported to a female leader.
For me, a #girlboss isn't unusual, it's the norm. But most of the world isn't like this and we all need to do more to change that. I want to do more than support women with my words. I'd like to do more with my actions. With three things specifically:
- Proactively hire and pay women more. Over the course of a typical year, we probably hire 40 freelancers with various specialties, from editing to graphic design. For all, we offer a flexible work schedule, and when we encounter one who is doing amazing work but seems to be undercharging for her skills ... we proactively increase their rate, pay them more. Most importantly, we suggest that they might want to charge more for their services to anyone else they work with. Sometimes, having a client willing to pay more is the confidence boost that any talented professional needs to increase her rates.
- Share the stage. I receive more invitations to speak at events than I'm able to take. In many cases, I will suggest great female speakers to take those slots instead of me. Sometimes, even when I do agree to speak, I'll invite women speakers up to share the stage with me in a panel or interview format. I try to use my privilege as a male speaker to open the door for less recognized but highly qualified female speakers who should be given more opportunities instead.
- Celebrate women's stories. Starting in 2008 I created The Personality Project to feature pioneering women who were making a difference in the world. Since then, I've tried to find new ways in every one of my books and talks to feature and celebrate stories of women. Sometimes this was on a big stage with high visibility. Other times it was through small details that most people missed - like featuring a back cover on one of my books with only endorsements from female reviewers. It's a reminder that the symbolic choices most people don't notice are just as important as the visible ones in front of crowds of thousands of people.
These aren't new priorities in the work that I've been doing with my teams, companies and my wife and co-founder, Chhavi Arya Bhargava. Over the past year alone, we hired six (paid) publishing interns. Five of them were women. We hosted a popular summit on Diversity featuring more than 200 speakers. More than 70% identified as female. We have hired more than a dozen talented women to work with and support our efforts in publishing, marketing and storytelling across both Ideapress Publishing and the Non-Obvious Company.
These are small steps, and we plan to do much more in 2021. So today on International Women's Day, I wanted to share my voice as an entrepreneur, as a supporter of women and as someone hoping to be a more decent and inclusive leader every day.
I'm not a dad of daughters. I'm not a brother of sisters. I am a proud dad of boys ... and I believe this matters.
#IWD2021
Digital Futurist | Web 3.0 & AI Keynote Speaker
3 年As a #GirlDad I 1000% agree and support this message!
Program Manager at the YMCA + Founder and fellow member at The Northeast Arts Commune
3 年Love this!
Communications Leader, Writer and Marketing Strategist
3 年Love that you share things like this that should be obvious but are not!
Business & Digital Transformation Catalyst | Industry-Recognized Thought Leader | Public Board Member | Trustee
3 年Love it. Thanks Rohit
Author: A Kids Book About Diwali | Co-Founder Non-Obvious Company & Ideapress Publishing | Educator | Mom
3 年This is one of the many reasons I love this man. Although I saw many women celebrating other women, I didn’t see many other men step up in a way that showed what they were doing to support and champion women every day. Yes, they talked about their mother, their wife or their daughters - but what about all the other women around them? Rohit and I talk about this often, together and with our boys. Not just on #IWD. We think about what more we can do every day. When we read manuscripts from potential male authors, we encourage them to be more inclusive, share stories of women, and to include female voices to write forwards or endorsements - as this gets overlooked way too often. We encourage our boys to show love and appreciation to all the women in their life - including their cousins, aunts, grandmother, their teachers and their friends. We hire more women, we donate to women, we buy and publish more books written by women, we watch more films about women, we give women more opportunities to have their voices heard on stage, and we do all the things that Rohit writes about in this article. It’s ongoing. It doesn’t end. Women are too often the only ones supporting other women. We need more men to step up. Every day. Now.