Sometimes we have to play by the rules…and where equality is concerned, sometimes we have to be ‘unreasonable’! This is why WIN LDN was thrilled to team up with Anomaly and the company’s gender equality platform Unreasonable Equals to discuss how to get to equality faster. The first September session back after a summer hiatus was especially timely given the recently publish WEF report that claims that the US will take 208 years to close the gender gap at the current rate – that’s roughly three lifetimes and a provocative starting point to kick-off the evening.

The event centred around a panel of award-winning females: Annelies Valk Global Brand Strategy from Vodafone; Caitlin Ryan – EMEA Regional Director of Creative Shop of Facebook; Valentina Ciobanu - Global Brand VP of Skincare at Unilever and Sally Weavers Founder of Craft Media and Godmother London. The panel was moderated by Nicola Kemp, Managing Editor of BITE at Creativebrief, during the evening they shared personal stories about their commitment to changing the global paradigm and the WIN community responded with compassion and a hunger for progress. Here’s the top takeaways:

1. Everyone is an ally.

To get to equality faster we cannot be afraid to surface the inequalities around us. To do this when you are the one personally impacted can feel difficult to approach, but it’s powerful when allies speak-up alongside the marginalised. Equality is the responsibility of everyone.

“When he overheard what I had experienced, he was completely shocked. I was blown away by his commitment to stand alongside me.”

2. Creativity can change behaviour.

We could all benefit from seeing the world from somebody else’s perspective to challenge our own biases but achieving this isn’t always easy. Whether it’s wishing a colleague wouldn’t resent you for leaving the office early to collect your children or wanting industry leaders to truly understand what it feels like to have no role-models “like you” to look up to – situations like these leave people frustrated, angry or even done with the industry all together. We must think and act creatively to shake up people’s status quo and get them to see the world differently. Take Caitlin Ryan’s letter to Justin Tindall, Creative Chief at M&C Saatchi, who claimed he was “bored of diversity”, as a poignant example.

“I once accepted a pay decrease because I wanted to leave at 5 pm every day to collect my children, that was 16 years ago – now I’ll never apologise for being a parent.”

3. Equal means equal.

It may sound obvious but to get to true equality, the industry needs to create practices that support everyone equally. That means just solving for one under-represented group doesn’t always cut it. For example, when women take maternity leave, it is negatively correlated with their progression. But if parental leave is equalized and encouraged for men too, that negative impact goes away. A reminder to decision makers: even the most well-intentioned ideas can have unintended consequences.

“Think like a UX designer, find the friction points where women or under-represented groups are not getting in and staying in, then find out why.”

A huge thank you to our panelists and moderator, WIN’s ambassador´s Kirsty Saddler and Dahlia Nahome , to Anomaly and Unreasonable equals and, of course, to our LDN community, for a thoughtful and progressive discussion. See you next time!

Unreasonable Equals at Anomaly Ambassador: Kirsty Saddler

Photography: Carolina Gomez

Blogpost: Laura Dawson

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Event Recap: WIN LDN x Unreasonable Equals at Anomaly: Let's Be Unreasonable So We Reach Equality Faster