Anna Carpen recently took the creative director role at 18 Feet & Rising.
There’s no point in congratulating ourselves when women are promoted to
leadership roles. The industry was calling to arms more than 15 years ago and the statistical data on gender equality hasn’t moved. Terms such as “femvertising” feel like embarrassed reactions.
The fact is a lot of what it takes to achieve gender balance is continuity of support.
If support structures also don’t enable women to have families, for example, gender imbalance strikes again. Very few companies are making any long-term commitments to anyone right now.
Drawing plausible links between the wider changes happening underneath business itself is vital. Fissures are appearing in the foundation system of continued economic growth. The decades chasing more is the bedfellow of macho management. To paraphrase Urban Dictionary, people who don’t like losing face in front of others have the emotional range of a teaspoon.
New organisational styles articulated by the likes of adviser, coach and facilitator Frederik Laloux are emerging that have self-management, wholeness (beyond masculinity and femininity) and evolutionary purpose at their heart.
Businesses must understand gender equality as a means, not an ends, to transcend categorisations and realise this is about all of us being able to bring our whole selves to work. When we do that, we inevitably do better work and open up conversations that inherently start to turn the dial on gender issues – and more.
Jonathan Trimble is CEO of 18 Feet & Rising
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