Well, what a way to start a Monday Morning.
I popped onto my phone and saw that notifications had gone mad around the Golden Globes and in particular Oprah's speech for her Cecile B deMille award.
Of course, I followed a link and for the next 9 minutes I don't think I took a breath (figuratively at least).
It is hard to ignore the temperature of the world at the moment, and for me it feels like this is the time of a seismic shift for Women to the Front.
Throughout my life I have been extremely fortunate to have been absorbed into positive environments both personally and professionally and, until becoming a mother I lived in a very contained bubble of mostly bliss but with ignorance (albeit unknown at the time) floating around in the background.
Last summer I created a short vlog about how my attitudes towards things had been changing and how can I be part of the change supporting others and educating myself and my son.
What does this mean for the industries we work in?
What do our children's futures look like?
I am hoping both will be positive.
Work wise, I have never felt that a male counterpart was given unfair promotion or treatment (although I am sure they were paid more than me when I was in managerial positions), I have never been put into a situation where I felt unsafe, or manipulated into situations based on my sex. But, I know far too many people (male and female) who have been made to feel unsafe in their place of work and that is not ok.
Where are we going wrong in raising humans?
How do people grow up, move into positions of power and think that they can behave in a manner that makes others feel vulnerable. This takes shapes in many forms and may not always by noticeable. In saying this, you don’t even need to have moved into a position of power for behaviours to change
Something I have noticed within my peer group; is that as parents, we are determined to challenge mindsets and the norm. We don't let things 'fly' when someone makes a flippant remark, our children are encouraged to learn and embrace the worked around them. And that empathy is instilled at them along the way.
Please don't get me wrong. No one is perfect. We would be fools to believe that we can change the world. But perhaps in our lifetime we will see faster movement on equality for all (not just in the workplace), a stop to the news stories we see each night where people are stepping forward after years of living in fear. And perhaps, just perhaps a kinder world.
What do you do as an employee, mother, father, friend, human to support those around you and challenge the norm?
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