A woman’s place is in your story

The theme of this year's International Women's Day is Balance for Better. Looking at how we can all help to forge a more gender-balanced world. 

'Women are f***ing second class citizens, Rach, and you don’t even know it.’

The woman who lit that particular touch-paper lived downstairs from me in my early twenties. At the time she was transitioning her gender from male to female. So, if anyone had the right to speak those words, it was her. After all, she’d lived her life from both those perspectives.

At first I remember feeling confused by what she said. But, pretty soon afterwards, I began to see this 'battle of the sexes' she spoke of unravel in my everyday life. 

A battle that 100% should not exist.

Because in a fair and equal world, wouldn't we simply honour and celebrate both the male and the female - within each of us and out there in society - every single day. 

I guess you may call me a dreamer. But I'm not the only one :)

So you thought the silent era was over, eh?

In amongst the glitz and glamour of last month’s Oscars ceremony, I came across a graph showing the proportion of words spoken by male and female roles (of more than 100 words) in the best winning picture films of the last two decades.

The graph spoke for itself – yes, it’s doing better than most actresses on that front – but it still took my breath away.

Then, earlier this week I had a realisation around my first love in the entertainment world. Comedy. It happened when I realised that some of my fave sitcoms of all time – namely Spaced, This Country and Catastrophe – were created by gloriously ying and yang writing partnerships.

(BTW the definition of ying and yang is 'complementary rather than opposing forces that interact to form a dynamic system in which the whole is greater than the assembled parts.)

Take the brilliant Jessica Hynes and Simon Pegg (Spaced which always reminds me of living in that flat in Bristol, with a skate-mad-pot-head), Daisy and Charlie Cooper's take on rural life - and Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney's brilliant funny Catastrophe.

The end result in each case? Award-winning entertainment. 

Striking a balance in business

Which gets me to the point of this article. My original personal ‘why’ for setting up Brand New Story was to give the feminine a voice in business.

Everywhere we look there are so many companies whose stories need to evolve before we can call ourselves an equal society. And, if the stories being lived and told in the business world continue to silence and omit the voice of the feminine, I predict that all those soulless organisations who could be transforming themselves and the world, will simply fall by the wayside as the next generation completes its coming of age. 

So, I finish with a question for you.

If you lead (or work) in a male-dominated company (or sector) and are ready to explore how your organisation could incorporate the feminine into everything it says and does - and transform into a new breed of company - maybe you're ready to create your Brand New Story. Especially if any of your employees or customers are women, which I strongly suspect they may be ;) 

Right now the business world needs a balanced approach more than ever before - and we're here to help you write the stories that will make that happen. If you'd like to have a conversation with us about how we could work together please get in touch.

We'd like to thank the brilliantly talented Hayley Gilmore for giving us her kind permission to use Princess Leia. You can visit her website to find out more about her, her work and this iconic image.