Use Your Voice

It's FRIDAY! I'm a FEMINIST! I've had a fucking busy week but I've got plenty to say today so let's go for another ? FEMINISM FRIDAY ? !

Today, I want to talk about USING YOUR VOICE. No, I don't mean shouting. No, I don't mean talking in meetings (although that's always welcome). No, I don't even mean bigging yourself up (again, always welcome). What I want to talk about is speaking up for other people.

Let me tell you a story...

A few weeks ago, I went to a round table discussion with other business owners. Part of some research thing from a media company (I think). You know me, I'll turn up for the opening of an envelope.

Anyway, it was in Leeds. I walked into the room and I was super disappointed. Why? Because of the lack of diversity.

And, contrary to what you're probably thinking, I don't mean the lack of gender diversity. There was about 30% women in the room actually, which for that kind of thing I don't think is half bad!

In this instance, I'm actually talking about the lack of ETHNIC diversity. Out of a room of 17 people, there was only one non-white face in the room. In fact, only one non-native English face in the room.

That's just over 5%.

In a city where only 79% of people identify as white, I thought it was pretty shitty that they didn't have more diverse faces around the table.

I could have done nothing about it. Chalked it up to just another event where we forget big swathes of the population exist (see: every cyber conference ever) but I thought about something a friend asked me a while back.

"What do you actually do, Amy, to support minority communities? You talk about it but what actions do you take?"

And I couldn't really answer the question with any real affirmative actions I've taken. Other than having a lot of non-white friends, there wasn't much I felt I'd actually done to support them.

So, I messaged the event organisers. I pointed out that in 2024, it's a bit shit that they couldn't bring a more diverse group of people together.

Is it groundbreaking activism I've done there? No. Is it something I wrote about all over LinkedIn at the time? No. Has it affected any real change? Probably no.

But if I have the opportunity to speak up and don't use it, well then I'm just complicit in perpetuating the fact that it's ok for events to lack representation on this level.

How is this relevant to Feminism Friday, Amy?

Ok so, now let's imagine I'd been the only woman in the room at that event. And none of the men had said anything to the event organisers. Would they have noticed? Would they consider improving diversity at their next event? Perhaps not.

One voice, one comment, one action doesn't change the world. I'm not virtue signalling here. I'm giving you real life examples of where you can put advocacy and allyship into practice.

I often have men asking me "how can we support women?". For me, it's the little things. We don't need knights in shining armour coming to our rescue.

We need it to be noticed when we're not being asked to the party. We can't talk about it, because we're literally NOT THERE. But you can. Because you've been invited.

One of the best things about Rik Ferguson is his stipulation that he won't be on a "manel". (That's a portmanteau for all-male panel FYI). And the one time he accidentally did join one, he called it out. Publicly. On the stage.

Hazel McPherson tagged me in a post earlier this week about another manel. She's calling it out in public. But did any of the panellists stop and think about it? (I don't actually know but would love to hear from them about their thoughts!!).

If the popular kids at the party don't use their voices to get the others invited, change won't happen.

So one thing you can do... that requires no huge platform, no big song and dance, no spotlight on you... is to use your voice. Whether you want to whisper or shout is entirely up to you. But use it anyway.