50/50 Day

It’s the first annual 50/50 Day, a global day of activism on achieving gender parity worldwide, organised by a film studio called Let it Ripple. There were 11,000 events in 65 countries, exploring conversations about what it will take to get to a more gender-balanced world in all sectors of society: business, politics, culture, home, and more.

Today, I participated in one of those events, put together by the Somerville Commission for Women. Together we watched a short film, principally around parity in political leadership. Then we broke into small groups for discussion on steps to take to solve one aspect of the issue, in our case gender norms, locally here in Somerville.

Our group didn’t get very far, unfortunately.  It was a little embarrassing. And as I watched the meeting’s group dynamic, purposefully staying quiet, it struck me how gender norms affected the meeting. The few other men were clearly more vocal, often interrupting women who were speaking. It was noticeable and more than a little disruptive. All the more reason for events like the Women’s Forum for the Economy & Society (a client) to exist.