You can’t be what you can’t see: When film and television collide with our offices

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Like a lot of television fans, Dolly Chugh loves The West Wing. When the show premiered in 1999, she watched the political drama religiously. But recently, she started to rewatch her old favorite with her husband and she realized something about the show for the first time. 

“It's stunning to me to watch it now in 2019 and realize how much blatant sexism, almost Me-Too-ish stuff, is in the show that I just didn't notice,” she told me in a recent interview 

Chugh is more than just a television fan, she is also an expert on the topic of unconscious bias. In her research, Chugh refers to the impact of watching sexist shows like The West Wing as “cultural smog.” From the moment that we are born, everything we’ve seen, heard or observed translates into unconscious associations that we make in our brain. So when we watch a television show where men are in charge and women are getting the coffee, for example, we are unconsciously associating men with power. 

“Sometimes I wish I could just turn my brain off and just enjoy the fricking show and not get so caught up in it,” she admits. “But on the other hand, I feel proud of myself that I have grown. That something that was invisible to me before is visible to me now… It makes me wonder, ‘What else am I not noticing?’”  

It’s clear that entertainment has a big impact on how we perceive both gender and race. Thankfully, the leaders who are deciding what we are watching on both big and small screens are finally realizing this responsibility. In 2018, 40 of the top 100 films in the U.S. featured a female in the leading or co-leading role — the highest rate ever. Some 16 of the top 100 movies were directed by black filmmakers, nearly three times as many as 2017.  

“Hollywood has finally received the memo, read it, and they are starting to hire differently in terms of who gets to lead storytelling,” said Dr. Stacy L. Smith, a leading academic working to transform the media landscape towards inclusion and belonging.

I recently sat down with Smith to learn more about how Hollywood is working toward more inclusive storytelling and why that’s essential if we’re going to make any progress within our own workplaces. Check out our conversation here:

What’s Working

Follow her lead. It’s quite rare for a female CEO or political leader to be succeeded by another woman, but the IMF will buck that trend. Outgoing chief Christine Lagarde will be replaced by Kristalina Georgieva, the Bulgarian chief executive of the World Bank Group. [WSJ]

The first, and changing the rules. Jess Lee — Sequoia Capital’s first female investor — isn’t letting the male-dominated venture capital industry get in the way of her making a slew of successful investments. “If you are underestimated, you can use that to your advantage,” she said. [Bloomberg]

‘Fix the problem, not the women.’ In an op-ed on LinkedIn, Bonobos founder Andy Dunn spoke out about the importance of male allyship: “Men: we’ve done the talking. We’ve done the unconscious bias training. We’ve told ourselves we care. But there’s only one way to show we actually do. We have to do the work.” [LinkedIn]

‘Celebrating motherhood.’ After Nike made headlines for, in some instances, punishing their female-sponsored athletes for having children, six-time Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix just left Nike to become the first professional athlete to be sponsored by Athleta. [Quartz]

What Needs Work

Over-challenged. Female CEOs have a 27% chance of being targeted by activist investors, while men face a less-than-1% chance, according to new research. Well-known activist investor Nelson Peltz — who has targeted several female CEOs including former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi — claims to be “gender blind” in his pursuits. [WSJ] 

Who’s Pushing Us Forward

#EqualityCantWait. The World Economic Forum predicts that it will take 208 years for the U.S. to reach gender equity. Melinda Gates partnered with several notable comedians — including Sarah Silverman and Uzo Aduba — on a campaign to spread awareness on the issue. Their hope with the humorous video? That everyone have a serious conversation about gender inequality this week.