How will you answer this question from 12-year-old girl?
Last night, while watching “60 Minutes”, watching an ad during the commercial break, my 12-year-old daughter asked me a question that left me in a perplexed situation and I didn’t know how to answer. Not because I don’t know the answer but more because I personally don’t like the answer and I feel like I can’t change the answer just by myself. But most importantly I didn’t know how do I answer so she understands it — both as a challenge and an opportunity.
Her question was — “Why all the women in the ad are wives and moms and all working people are man?”
First, I was struck by her observation. It got me thinking — is current inequality that apparent? Or is next generation more cognizant of these societal issues? Does that mean — there is a hope? But then she looked at me — waiting for an answer. And my brain started churning on how to answer that.
I give keynotes and talks on diversity and inclusion all the time. But in that moment, I didn’t have an answer. I didn’t have an answer that 12-year-old will understand.
How do I explain that even in 2018, women are mostly looked at as homemaker vs. professionals where as 50% workforce is made up of women?
How in 2018, women get paid 79 cents for each dollar man makes?
How in 2018, women only founded companies get less than 3% VC funding than male founded companies.
How will you answer this question to your 12-year-old daughter/ niece/ neighbor?
But before you answer, let me share few other stats with you. More women have college degrees, both bachelor and graduate, than men (Yes, they are over qualified and under paid than men).
First Round Capital examined 300 of its portfolio companies and almost 600 founders, and found that the teams with at least one female founder returned 63 percent better financial returns than the all-male founder teams.
(Source: http://10years.firstround.com/ )
So there are no apparent reasons on why women are still treated more like home makers than professionals. There is no reason that when people see a woman, they see a mom, wife, or sister but not a CEO or engineer or an entrepreneur. And that is what various brands are doing - showing people what they are used to seeing. We need to change the norm, status quo of how we view women.
In the meantime, help me answer this question for my 12-year-old daughter.
So how will you answer this questions — “Why all the women in the ad are wives and moms and all working people are man?”