Vi är nästa generation
I september förra året höll jag en föreläsning om jämställdhet och entreprenörskap för ett gäng studenter i Växjö. Ett rum med unga ansikten som lystes upp av macbookdatorer väntade på mig med viss förväntan. Jag började med att prata om att jämställdhet inte kommer av sig självt, att förändringen aldrig sker om ingen tar det första steget för att skapa en förändring. Eller som Gandhi lär ha sagt, “Be the change you want to see in the world”.
En bit in i föreläsningen visade jag dem en film om jämställd snöröjning, en film som vi på Add Gender har visat vid flera tillfällen med gott resultat (har du inte sett den kan du se den här). Den påvisar att jämställdhet (eller ojämställdhet) kan finnas överallt på ett oväntat sätt.
Efter filmen frågade jag efter reaktioner och reflektioner, men svaren blev inte vad jag hade förväntat mig; “Det finns väl viktigare saker att fokusera på än hur vi plogar?” Under de tre minuter som filmen pågick så tappade jag dem och de pepprade mig med de vanliga argumenten; “Men, liksom, det kommer ju att bli jämställt när vi blir äldre. När vi går ut i arbetslivet så kommer det att ändras för vi är så medvetna om jämställdhet. Vi gör ingen skillnad på kvinnor och män”.
Till slut bröt deras lärare in och hon försökte, förgäves, förklara för dem att hon trodde att hennes generation (70-talisterna) skulle vara den generation som blev jämställd. Att de skulle få vara med om förändringen som skulle lämna ojämställdheten bakom sig. Studenterna såg, de hörde, men de verkade inte riktigt kunna ta till sig det som hon sa.
För det är så, vad vi än vill tro eller hoppas på, inget kommer av sig självt. Hur ofta dryftas inte argumentet som studenterna ovan nämnde, “Det kommer med nästa generation”? Eller, “Förändring tar tid, stressa inte!” Men när har förändring skett utan jobb, strävan, diskussioner, lobbying, utbildning?
Förändring sker när vi vågar utmana våra invanda mönster och beteenden. När vi vågar ifrågasätta våra tankar och idéer och öppna oss för något nytt. Det kommer inte av att vänta. Det bästa exemplet på detta kom i för ett tag sedan i DN som i en artikel berättar om utvecklingsprojektet Tostan. Genom det treåriga projektet lyckas man bryta en tusenårig tradition, tre år mot tusen, tre år av aktivt och målmedvetet arbete mot tusen år av, “såhär har vi alltid gjort”! Tre år av utbildning, verktyg och ägandet av förändringen som har satt stopp för könsstympning. Det har varit så framgångsrikt att kvinnlig könsstympning beräknas vara utplånad inom några år i Senegal.
Om denna förändring kan ske där 61 procent av kvinnor och 38 procent av män inte kan läsa (UNESCO). Där utbildning, information och nyheter inte är lika lättillgängliga som i Sverige, där kan riktig, påtaglig och livsavgörande förändring ske på tre år. Vad är vår ursäkt för att inte skapa förändring och bygga ett jämställt samhälle?
Introducing #Eqmeter, Add Gender and Mentimeter’s equality tool
I am delighted to write this blog to kick-off Add Gender and Mentimeter’s partnership and release of #eqmeter. Together, we are ensuring that organizations globally have a free tool that will allow them to kick-start equality discussions, follow-up equality work and easily illustrate long-term equality trends. Mentimeter is a free survey tool that you can use for meetings, conferences, and group discussions. It shows the results of your survey questions in real time, and the audience answers using their phones. It’s especially great for equality, because it’s anonymous. So there is no barrier to having an honest, open discussion.
Add Gender and Mentimeter are releasing the #eqmeter, which is a global, 3-question survey that measures every participant’s answers in real time. Check it out here and immediately see how your answers change the overall tally. We are also giving away a free, 5-question survey about equality to every person who tries Mentimeter‘s free premium trial.
I want to say upfront, though, that this tool isn’t for measuring everything relating to equality. It has limits. You might be wondering, “How do you measure equality?” Well, we have a tool called 3R that allows us to measure three different areas concerning equality in an organization.
First, we look at the number of women and men at all levels and departments. (This can also be applied to other diversity indicators, like age or background). We also look at who’s taking sick leave, parental leave, full time or part time employment, and lots of other things.
The next area we look at is resources. Are people being paid the same wages for equal work? Allowed the same opportunities for professional development? And so on.
The third area that we look at is culture. This is where surveys like Mentimeter are helpful. They help us understand how people feel, why equality is important at their workplace, what’s hindering equality, work/life balance, and much more. The limitations that survey data have is that they cannot provide us with statistics on either of the first 2 areas that I mentioned – they can’t give us facts regarding representation or resources. For those, we need to use other tools.
But they can provide us with a goldmine of rich data on whether or not people know who to talk to if they experience discrimination or harassment, whether people feel that there are equal opportunities for everyone, and much more.
Mentimeter is also great as means of following up on your equality goals. This could be through doing a short equality survey in your team meetings or conferences every few weeks or months, and tracking the results over time. Feel free to customize this survey and add on questions that are relevant to your organization.
Every country has different rules regarding how you should work with equality. In Sweden, if you have 25 or more employees, you have to write an equality plan and update it every 3 years. If you have one man and one woman employed doing the same work, you have to do wage surveys every 3 years to make sure that you’re not discriminating in your payment of salaries. Add Gender can help you with these things, and there are many free resources on the Discrimination Ombudsman’s website too. To really understand the third area, culture, and follow the law, organizations with 25 or more employees also need more advanced surveys than the one provided here to understand their present situation.
We hope you’ll use this tool to start talking about equality, to start asking questions, and to follow-up with your other equality work. Last week I used Mentimeter to ask a few questions at a lecture for 100 people, and they were delighted with the real-time results. I hope your team is also delighted and interested in their survey results! Let us know what you think! Follow the discussions at #eqmeter and #techeq. I especially want to thank Jessica Areborn, who was instrumental in making this tool happen.
Why I must come out as trans: Geena Rocero’s TEDtalk
This is an amazing story, and a really awesome TED talk. It talks about one woman’s story of self-acceptance. My favorite quote is this: ”We’re all assigned gender at birth. What I’m trying to do is have this conversation that, sometimes, that gender assignment doesn’t match. There should be a space that would allow people to self-identify. That’s a conversation that we should have with parents, with colleagues.” I love the idea that Geena opens up for questioning and explaining. Many people have no idea what it’s like to be trans, and that’s why it’s so valuable that Geena shared her story. Take a look and get inspired!
You can find me here: http://www.addgender.se/alice-marshall/
13 Things Not To Say To Your Lesbian Friend – Diversity & Equality in 2014
Hello friends! I hope that everyone had lovely holidays and a wonderful first few days of 2014. I thought I’d start off the New Year by sharing this funny article I came across (admittedly on Cosmo – yes, I read Cosmo). I liked it because: 1. it’s funny 2. it addresses taboo stuff that people don’t like to talk about, like ingrained heteronorms etc. 3. it’s a cool way to think about being more wordly and less ignorant as we all move into 2014: the year of embracing the coolness of differences!
Here it is, enjoy!
13 Things Not to Say to your Lesbian Friend
Inspiring Diversity at HP
A few weeks ago, I lectured at HP on diversity and gender equality in the global IT world for their Inspiration Day 2013, which was themed ”Putting our differences to work.” I had an absolute blast, it was an awesome group of people, and the other speakers were great too. My talk focused on how to work with diversity as an organization: what it looks like right now in the IT industry, crucial arguments for diversity in IT, and best practices for becoming great at diversity. (HP is already doing really well in terms of gender equality, with 45/55% men and women in Executive management in Sweden).
Another great highlight of the day was meeting HP’s Managing Director of Norway, Anita Krohn Traaseth. Her talk was entitled ”Confessions of a Managing Director,” and she was hilarious. She focused on individual-level actions that people can take to drive their own success, and she talked about her own success story. Her career started when she applied for a job at IBM with absolutely no experience and no degree in engineering, both of which were requirements. Instead of responding to the job ad with a resume and cover letter, she wrote a fake press release as if they had already hired her: ”As expected, IBM has hired Ms. Krohn Traaseth and welcome her to our team. Her long experience and creativity will be a welcome part of our team…” and so forth. Actually, out of 10 ”qualifications” for the job, she only had one: a good attitude. But that didn’t stop her. She didn’t get the job, but the hiring team found her response so interesting and creative that they invited her to a weekend for the executives at IBM, and she went, and got hired for a different role. Done!
Of course Anita now has 17+ years of experience in management and IT roles, so a lot has changed from that beginning. But she’s still obviously really creative. One of her first actions when she assumed the MD role was to invite everyone in the company to have an individual, 5-minute meeting with her. She asked them 3 questions, including where are the biggest bottlenecks in the organization, and what’s the key to keeping the culture. The input of her colleagues helped her decide strategy.
I love meeting women who are crushing it in IT, and that’s why I wanted to share this story with you. I also really enjoy working with organizations that have creative people working to promote diversity. HP has lots of both (the pic above is me with Malin Löfstedt, the mastermind behind this great event), and that’s why it was such a great day. For all of you who want to learn more about Anita, check out her blog: http://tinteguri.com/ And remember – diversity and creativity go hand in hand!
