Studies show that men are doing more housework, taking an active role with childcare, are more compassionate, and some are even joining women in the fight for equality. We still have a ways to go, however, because sexism is alive and well and blocking women from reaching pay equality, job equality, and often denying women full industry access.
Solving Global Problems
One area where that is increasingly evident is in the media. Claudia Chan wants to change that, and has created a media network, S.H.E. Globl Media Inc. Championing social entrepreneurship to solve global problems, she has also launched an annual women’s empowerment conference, and is working on a new project – S.H.E. University – to offer classes and training to women online.
Renewed Focus On Women
While Chan has spent years focusing her business efforts on women, she started to feel like something was missing. In fact, she recently said in FastCompany that she felt like her career lacked purpose. It seemed that everywhere she turned women’s media was focusing on fluff stories about beauty, fashion, celebrities, and how to have the perfect body.
Chan couldn’t help but wonder why the media was reporting on so many trivial topics when there were more important things to talk about. Just looking around Chan saw, as I do, issues ranging from poverty plaguing women in the developing world to the massive underrepresentation of women leaders at Fortune 500 companies. Chan felt those were the issues that needed to be talked about, not the latest gossip on the Kardashians. I couldn’t agree with her more.
Getting Excited About Women’s Empowerment
Driven to get women to obsess about empowerment the same way they do about celebrity gossip, Chan started interviewing women leaders and has since amassed more than 200 interviews on her website. Through that experience Chan has learned a few things about successfully spreading the message of women’s empowerment.
Changing The Conversation
For more tips on changing the conversation, read Chan’s approach at FastCompany.