Episode 5: The Long Game: Gender Equity, Global Stakes and Why It Can't Wait I with Alison Terry

I want to bring us back onto the topic of gender equality and just sort of, I think, acknowledge the context in which we're talking about right at the moment.

You know, there's a lot of people who have worked in this area for a very long time and I think it's really important to consider how we make sure that the hard gains that we have really been able to achieve, especially in the workplace, we're talking about in the workplace, but also just you know, in terms of access to essential rights over the last couple of decades, how we ensure that they keep remaining embedded in our society, because we've seen how it can change really quickly.

And I know that many of our mothers, our grandmothers, the people that we look up to and respect have really fought hard for those gains and we don't wanna lose that momentum.

So how do we ensure that we don't go backwards on some of these key issues?

I sort of think about it in two ways.

One is the kind of, the big voice, the big issues.

So as you said, I've joined a number of boards and a couple of the corporate boards, I'm still one board, I'm the only woman and on others, I'm still in the minority.

It's not a criticism, at least I'm there and with others in some cases, but One of the things I do is, you know, there's always a diversity report which is led typically by the head of human resources.

And look, what I see sometimes sitting around the table is, you know, not everyone is quite as engaged in that conversation.

So I always make a point of... asking question, you know, getting a bit more information.

Well, what are you doing? How have you achieved that gain? Well done on blah, blah, blah.

Because otherwise it just becomes, it just slips into the noise, if you like, the background noise.

So that's one area.

And I think the other one is kind of, it's in those conversations and we all talk about, don't let the joke be told and let it sit, speak up.

And remember back to, I was working at a technology startup and there was a situation where a group of the team had been interacting with a supplier and there'd been a sort of unfortunate joke made at the expense of, as it turned out, a female member of the team.

I wasn't there, but I was in the office and one of my team came back and she, at lunchtime when it was all open plan, she stood up and she said, hi everyone, I just wanna call out what happened.

I still remember it today.

I remember thinking, so brave.

And she said, we shouldn't have done that.

We shouldn't have laughed.

How do you think it made her feel? It was so good.

So it's the big, what I call the big issues, but also those small things.

Don't go home in the evening and think, I wish I'd said something.

Don't let that happen.

So this was after the fact.

I want to bring us back onto the topic of gender equality and just sort of, I think, acknowledge the context in which we're talking about right at the moment.

You know, there's a lot of people who have worked in this area for a very long time and I think it's really important to consider how we make sure that the hard gains that we have really been able to achieve, especially in the workplace, we're talking about in the workplace, but also just you know, in terms of access to essential rights over the last couple of decades, how we ensure that they keep remaining embedded in our society, because we've seen how it can change really quickly.

And I know that many of our mothers, our grandmothers, the people that we look up to and respect have really fought hard for those gains and we don't wanna lose that momentum.

So how do we ensure that we don't go backwards on some of these key issues?

I sort of think about it in two ways.

One is the kind of, the big voice, the big issues.

So as you said, I've joined a number of boards and a couple of the corporate boards, I'm still one board, I'm the only woman and on others, I'm still in the minority.

It's not a criticism, at least I'm there and with others in some cases, but One of the things I do is, you know, there's always a diversity report which is led typically by the head of human resources.

And look, what I see sometimes sitting around the table is, you know, not everyone is quite as engaged in that conversation.

So I always make a point of... asking question, you know, getting a bit more information.

Well, what are you doing? How have you achieved that gain? Well done on blah, blah, blah.

Because otherwise it just becomes, it just slips into the noise, if you like, the background noise.

So that's one area.

And I think the other one is kind of, it's in those conversations and we all talk about, don't let the joke be told and let it sit, speak up.

And remember back to, I was working at a technology startup and there was a situation where a group of the team had been interacting with a supplier and there'd been a sort of unfortunate joke made at the expense of, as it turned out, a female member of the team.

I wasn't there, but I was in the office and one of my team came back and she, at lunchtime when it was all open plan, she stood up and she said, hi everyone, I just wanna call out what happened.

I still remember it today.

I remember thinking, so brave.

And she said, we shouldn't have done that.

We shouldn't have laughed.

How do you think it made her feel? It was so good.

So it's the big, what I call the big issues, but also those small things.

Don't go home in the evening and think, I wish I'd said something.

Don't let that happen.

So this was after the fact.