#4/2018
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Making Visibility a Mission
Visibility is not only about seeing, hearing and reading about someone, it is also a tool that can be used to gauge what the status quo is across the different areas of society. For example, the current default setting brilliantly explained in this article WOM shared in the last newsletter, hasn’t been challenged, perhaps because of unconscious acceptance of what normal is. But 'normal' isn't set in stone and can be changed. Thus, the current feminist movement is not about excluding men, but it’s about including women in an effort of resetting the default and hopefully get a little closer to reality.
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Photo by Seth Doyle on Unsplash
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2018 THE YEAR OF FEMALE WRITERS
Photo illustration from a calendar by Mary Englebright taken at a dentist waiting room.
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“More women’s voices will be published, meaning that more will be eligible for awards. And if they're successful in winning any of them, this will provide much greater visibility for female writers, and help inspire more creative women to follow in their footsteps.” And Other Stories
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The idea all started from an article written by the author, Kamila Shamsie that stemmed from a simple question as to why so few women were winning the big prizes. She feels there is a “bias against women writers. This, she argued, has led to fewer women being put forward for prizes or even being published in the first place.” This ‘triple bind’ is not only in the publishing world but across many industries. The question then is, what can be done to break this?
A publishing house in the UK, And Other Stories, has accepted the challenge. And so too, Not a Pipe, based in Oregon, USA. If you know of other publishing houses who have reacted to the challenge, WOM would love to hear about it.
There seems to be two intentions in this challenge. The first is not about excluding men, but about making sure women are included. And the second, is the opportunity for publishing houses to really look at the entire system across the industry and become consciously aware of what’s actually happening. And Other Stories is looking to be "a kind of small-scale model for a much bigger inquiry about why women’s writing is consistently sidelined or secondary.”
And finally, what is strange is that the majority of the publishing industry is run by women yet the wage gap is quite significant in the industry. Women do want to rise in the ranks but if the industry doesn’t make that possible, then they take it into their own hands, which has resulted in women opening their own publishing houses, as explained in this article.
A publishing house in the UK, And Other Stories, has accepted the challenge. And so too, Not a Pipe, based in Oregon, USA. If you know of other publishing houses who have reacted to the challenge, WOM would love to hear about it.
There seems to be two intentions in this challenge. The first is not about excluding men, but about making sure women are included. And the second, is the opportunity for publishing houses to really look at the entire system across the industry and become consciously aware of what’s actually happening. And Other Stories is looking to be "a kind of small-scale model for a much bigger inquiry about why women’s writing is consistently sidelined or secondary.”
And finally, what is strange is that the majority of the publishing industry is run by women yet the wage gap is quite significant in the industry. Women do want to rise in the ranks but if the industry doesn’t make that possible, then they take it into their own hands, which has resulted in women opening their own publishing houses, as explained in this article.
BITE-SIZE
Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash
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Watch: Let's not wait until we're 40 to speak with pride of our accomplishments, expressed so well by Reese Witherspoon.
Read: When one messes up, it's a lesson, not a failure. This entrepreneur shared openly with her community a major 'screw up'. And this is not only to demonstrate that mistakes happen (to everyone) and you need to have the mindset to learn from them, but just as important this type of sharing provides empowerment and encouragement to focus on taking action and not the possibility of a mistake. Listen: Keeping with the importance of visibility, Arlan Hamilton, is a woman who's a great role model showing that anybody can drastically change their career if they want to. Listen to her story, if she can do it, so can you. |
Published in February 2018.