Gender Equality, lets stop making this a 'complex issue'. It isn't!

There are so many things in our world that we need to get right, so many things we seem to be getting wrong, that it can feel rather overwhelming to know where to start or where to put our focus. The very fact of the word and reality of 'diversity' gives us a clue as to why this might be the case.

If you are a company, what kind of discrimination or prejudices should you address, there are so many, which to prioritise to really make an impact? Where to start? Gender? Sexuality? Age? Mobility? Race? Background?

Having to care in a context of existing overwhelm and how much we all already have on our plates, may seem like the 'wafer thin mint'. But I don't buy it. This is simple. We make it complicated either out of genuine ignorance or maybe simply because it's convenient for us to see things how we have always seen them, and we would like to continue doing so uninterrupted.

Whatever the cause or reason why, it is clear that we have collectively painted ourselves into a corner. Somehow we find ourselves having set fire to our house, hoping that flames licking up against the window, are perhaps in fact just the sun peeking through from behind the curtains. This delusion or imagining of an idyllic status quo subdues the discomfort of that underlying feeling of panic, just enough to prevent us from taking any meaningful action.

So what's my point? My point is simply this: that there is a very obvious inequality that we desperately need to face head on; it is an inequality that has been screaming at us in the face for 1000's of years, a scream so loud and the avoidance of which so miraculous, that it's been possible to pass it off as a kind of white noise.

Everything that we do in this experience we call Life, every day, occurs within this screaming context. So habituated are we to this inequality as status quo, so hardwired are we to it's goals, so engendered are we in our conversations, turns of phrase and ways of being, that it's hard to imagine a world, especially the world of business, really operating in anything close to a radically different way. One that would allow for a truly positive, exciting and harmonious vision for our collective future.

It might be easier to justify the subjecting of this scream to white noise if the victims were a minority. But we are not. We are 50% of the world's population, and this is before you even begin to factor in our sexuality, age, mobility, background or race. This fact alone, at the beginning of 2019, makes any continued justification of this global 'oversight' the biggest scandal.

It also provides the most powerful reason for addressing this blatant wrong, and with the highest priority. NOW!

I say this as a woman, but not because I am woman. I say this not because I put my status as a woman over and above any other marginalised or excluded fellow human beings or my 'included' friends and colleagues.

I say this simply - because if we can't be an active part of removing gender inequality, an issue affecting half our global population; then all other marginalised communities do not stand a real chance of affecting any meaningful change for theirs.

But, if we address this as pragmatically as possible, with focus, clear plans and powerful intention, our world can literally be changed overnight. The implications are a fundamental perspective shift, one aligned to who we truly are as a human race.

Anything less is an excuse.

Let's stop making this a 'complex issue'. It isn't.

It is inconvenient to power, knowing, status quo and self interest, for sure. These are the only excuses that justify continued confusion or non action.

Either way, women are waking up to our power, this is an invitation to be that power together.