A new hashtag for a very old challenge
Like moths to the flame…
Last night, I was watching the NHL playoffs while tweeting into one of my favorite events, #MediaChat. A lively discussion was in play, the hockey game was electrifying (double OT!), and yet the evening had another surprise in store via a new tangent which pulled me and hundreds of other women into an entirely separate discussion.
As notifications began piling up on Twitter, I noticed the hashtag anchoring the tweets together: #presentHER. Women — and men! — are commenting in droves using this hashtag while tagging their peers, sharing empowering ideas, and acknowledging the fact that today’s marketing events have a serious problem only we can solve.
Too many white dudes. Not sorry, fellas.
Anecdotally, we’re all sick of it (and by “we,” I mean anyone who isn’t a white male with the title of “speaker” attached to his profile): seeing the same spectrum of talent at every single conference, sometimes saying the same things from event to event, yet oddly one would think that only white men know anything about sharing expertise from a stage.
Statistically, there’s no way around it: women are not getting the speaking gigs with the same regularity and recognition as our male counterparts. (Please take a selfie of your “not-shocked” face right now and post it in the comments.)
#presentHER. Yes, please do!
Enter the newest answer to this challenge: the #presentHER movement. It was motivated in great part by the blog post written by Stefanie Grieser on the Unbounce website, which declares unabashedly and emphatically that not providing women speakers at events is, quite frankly, bullshit. When one considers the benefits of including a more diverse speaker lineup, what is the deal with not really trying to find them?
Based on what I hear and what I’ve found regarding this challenge, the excuse often rings out: “We couldn’t find any qualified women to speak on the topic.”
Riiiiiiight. Well, guess what? We’re going to fix that for you.
Thanks to Stefanie’s Unbounce blog, we now have a Google Doc being filled with the names of female marketing experts who can speak with authority about topics any conference would love to add to their agenda. If you’re a conference or event planner who doesn’t know enough knowledgeable women, you’re welcome.
If you haven’t yet dialed in to the #presentHER hashtag, what are you waiting for? We don’t just need women hopping into the fray; we need the guys, too. We need to add this hashtag to each success and struggle to be recognized for what we know. Because guess what? We know shit. Lots of it.
Some other noteworthy articles on the topic of the lack — and solution — of women speakers at events today:
Why It’s Actually Pretty Easy to Get Smart, Diverse Women on Panels
Putting an End to Conferences Dominated by White Men (this one is from 2014, so… yeah)
