It’s vital to amplify the female voice in the workplace, write Lee Thawley & Vicky Pritchard, founders of MuddyWellies. They advise: start by providing public speaking opportunities for your female staff, internally and externally
International Women’s Day is an important day for MuddyWellies. It’s a day where we unapologetically celebrate ourselves, our team, and our clients, and give credit for what we’ve achieved in a male dominated world.
But it shouldn’t be reserved to a day, a week, or a month. We’ve still got such a long way to go when it comes to empowering women in the workplace. And we’ve got a big problem if people are failing to recognise this as a current, pressing issue. Before MuddyWellies, we have worked alongside leadership teams full of men, as the minority, for the majority of our lives.
We got used to being the ‘token’ female team member of the exec, and it wasn’t until we left these roles that we became fully aware of the gender inequality that we have both experienced. We realised that women deserve more control over their careers. But it was our experience in a male-dominated business that gave us the drive to take our next step. We promised to make a change when it came to our own business.
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We promised to be assertive – and not to worry if men think we’re too ‘abrasive’ – we promised to let our female clients’ voices be heard and to truly shout about every win. We unlocked our full potential by lifting each other up.
Women who are empowered will work harder
When we lift the women in our businesses, we give them the power to excel at what they do. There are women that are working hard for their voices to be heard, women that are working two full time jobs – being a mother and doing a 9-5, and women struggling through the menopause, that just don’t get the support they need in terms of career progression and wellbeing.
Hence the importance of providing equal opportunities across the business – whether that means diversifying your leadership, giving every employee a chance to engage with that team, or even recognising and educating your teams on the experiences that women face.
We’ve recognised that men often own their successes, while we tend to undermine ours. Sometimes we don’t get the same opportunities to shout about the amazing work that we do, without being seen as egocentric.
Feminist journalist and activist, Gloria Steinem, said how she one day “stopped couching her suggestions in hesitancy and humour” – and it truly gave us a wakeup call.
As women, we must take ownership of our ideas
We must stop gingerly adding our ideas to the room, making them out to be a joke or sitting quietly at the back of the meeting. We are allowed to take up space, to make sure our ideas, and the ideas of our co-workers, are heard. Because they’re usually pretty damn good.
It’s vital to amplify the female voice in the workplace. Start by providing public speaking opportunities for your female staff, internally and externally. Allow them to be celebrated just as much as the men.
Encourage them to pursue opportunities for progression in the business and have active conversations about recognising women amongst your leadership teams.
Invite inspirational women to speak to your employees and challenge any panels you are invited to with no female representation. And most importantly, commend their wins with the rest of the business.
Show your female employees how much they are valued and respected and show that you are invested in helping them to succeed. That’s how you not only champion your women but attract and retain a more diverse scope of talent.
International Women’s Day is a fantastic time to consider your female recognition, education, and gender diversity. But it’s not always easy to implement it. We feel lucky to be an all-female team, but we understand that’s not always the case. We chose to break away from the norm, and to challenge how things have always been done.
We try to set an example in the business community, and we’re proof that speaking up does bring success. So, for the women reading: We are our own greatest allies and it’s time to build each other up.
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Lee Thawley & Vicky Pritchard are the co-founders of brand and people agency, MuddyWellies, working to transform brands and engage people to achieve rapid, sustainable growth.
