Now ask yourself: what if those images are saying over and over and over that a woman isn’t capable of being a scientist, or a professional, or a leader, or an executive, or a president?
What if those images are telling people of color that they cannot achieve what others have?
And what if the images are telling the differently abled that they scarcely exist within professional settings?
And what if those images are telling women that once they’ve reached the age of 40, they’re no longer valued professionally and their careers are over?
In 2017, I was profoundly moved by the words of a co-worker when she said, “We need role models to kill that unconscious bias that we all have…we need affinity programs to remind women that they can be leaders, too. Women don’t imagine themselves going beyond a level, because they don’t see women there.”
Those words lead to a very, very uncomfortable path of self-reflection in relation to this site: an inventory of the images was harrowing. Indeed, even here, on a site created and run by women, cognitive bias against women, people of color (POC), and the differently abled was rampant.
The few images of women featured were usually in stories about retail shopping. There were less than 20 images featuring POC, and zero of the differently abled.The images of women in leadership positions were nil, and when I started looking for some, that proved challenging as well.
I wrote,”even in the land of staged images where equality could easily reign (it is pretend, after all), the majority of images and illustrations available feature white men.
If you’re looking for images with people of color, good luck. If you’re looking for images of professional women that aren’t sexualized in some way, be prepared to spend plenty of time searching.”
I considered the world around us, where women still haven’t advanced equally – or been paid fairly – and realized that politely waiting for change just wasn’t going to cut it anymore.
Hence began the mission of creating a thought leadership site that was truly inclusive, diverse, and representative of all – a site not only about commerce and customer engagement, but also about the people who are the customers.
In order to smash the glass ceiling, we first need to reach it. Fortunately, the entryway to this barrier is in plain sight: To achieve gender equality in the workplace, women must hold the door open for other women.
With the ideals of equality in mind, we began to reconsider the look and name of our site.
While those creative concepts were in the works, I began the tedious process of replacing images on older posts, swapping out the stereotypes of the past with the hope for the future:
Almost immediately, the results of this effort were clear: Readers were clicking on more posts, and engaging with more content.
The time on site increased by over a minute to nearly nine minutes, and 99% of our archives are viewed each day. It turns out that once people can see themselves within different roles, and how they can fit into the organization, they become more engaged.
It's Women's Equality Day, but it'll be 135.6 years before women and men reach parity on a range of factors, versus the 99.5 years cited in 2020.
Our new logo incorporates the theme of diversity and inclusion, and that color palette will be featured across the site as a visual reminder that each of us matters:
Though evolutionary adaptation once required humankind to make quick decisions in order to survive, we aren’t living in those times anymore. In order to change the power structures and status quo, we’ve got to evolve and make conscious decisions not rooted in bias, but rooted in what is fair, and what is right.
Only by imagining a future that is better for all of us can we begin to build a world that is inclusive of each of us.
Welcome, my friends, to The Future of Commerce and Customer Engagement. It’s our most sincere hope that you know you’re all welcome here.
