We’re working with Business Chicks to help counter a bad week for women in leadership. Join us in sending a note of encouragement to women across Australia to get ambitious, to stay positive and to keep pushing for change.
We thought this week would be the one in which a female leader broke the ‘highest and hardest‘ of glass ceilings.
That didn’t happen. And the alternative that did occur is difficult to stomach.
More than ever, we need to inspire more women into leadership and into going after what they want, with stories of power and collaboration and success. We need to share mistakes as well as big bold ambitions, and offer daily acts of encouragement that can not only inspire other girls and women to think big, but also help them in doing so.
Australian women didn’t have a say in the US Election, but we do have a say and can play a part in countering some of the negative rhetoric to emerge during the presidential debate, and in getting more women into leadership across other spheres. While it may be a long time yet before we do see a female US president, we can help shift the dial elsewhere across business, politics, community and life here in Australia.
During a Business Chicks event in Sydney this morning with Sophia Amoruso, CEO Olivia Ruello shared with the 1000-strong crowd of (mainly) women a note she’d sent to her own staff yesterday following Donald Trump’s presidential win.
She said that while “it was not a good day for women” or for “building bridges not walls”, that it’s important to remember that one man doesn’t rule the world. “Young women and girls need to see women in ALL other areas of society right now,” she said. “We also need women across the globe to personally come into their own power, to stand up to bullies, to protect other women, to take a stand when and wherever they can.
“We want women to feel connected and supported and know that we BELIEVE in them as they step into and realise power.”
After a week of feeling despondent, we quickly hatched a plan with the digital team at Business Chicks, all in the spirit of collaboration which is so desperately needed right now.
We decided to publish a series inviting readers and members to #StepUpAndSpeak. It’s an opportunity to share your little piece of encouragement on social media, and/or offer something a little more comprehensive with us over email that we can publish across our platforms. Perhaps, like Olivia, you’ve shared a note with your team (or with your children or mentee or someone else), that’d you like to share with women everywhere.
You can send a simple piece of advice and encouragement to girls and women, or share your own story of leadership, of lessons learnt or even your ambition for the future. It can be a sentence, a paragraph or something longer. Share with the team at Women’s a Agenda or Business Chicks for publishing, or simply blast it on social media using the hashtag #StepUpAndSpeak. We’ll start publishing what we receive and see from Monday for the rest of the month of November.
