This Sunday it's March 8th and time for the international women's day. We had a talk about gender equality with the Project Manager for From Business to Buttons, Jane Murray.
It's been a while since the Metoo movement took place – Harvey Weinstein was just now found guilty – is everything equal now, especially within the design and business area?
– Haha! No, everything is not equal, says Jane Murray, Project Manager at FBTB.
– One of the biggest challenges still, is that women who step forward and point out sexism are often not believed. As a woman, you still have more to lose when you share experiences of sexism. It is about more than handling the abuser, it is about deep structures that rather have you being wrong than right.
– What if companies and leaders' first reaction would be of gratitude that someone has the courage to let you know you have an abusive person or structure in your company? Metoo and Weinstein are only the tips of the iceberg – women still need "safe spaces" to be able to talk about their experiences freely.
What are the most important things to work with equality within our field today?
– To identify and see structures and patterns and to act on them. We all have to react and pitch in if we want to change the future. Also, if you're a manager, always give female applicants €100 more in salary than you were thinking from the start. That's how you break outdated patterns.
How is FBTB working with equality?
– Well, it's not exactly rocket science. We decided that we want to have half of the speakers female and half the speakers male. And that's that.
How is FBTB doing, what could be even better?
– We are still working daily with diversity. And we also want to think globally and try to find speakers in other parts of the world outside Europe and the US.