Rebrand the F Word - Feminism needs a make-over

It’s probably time I revealed my plan. It’ll need to expand exponentially from these humble beginnings but at least I have a start. Last month, after a week at TED, I managed to tear an idea from my head. I am going to compile a dream team of PR and agency gurus of both genders and invite them to devise a global advertising campaign - fictitious, but who knows where it might lead - to rebrand the F word (that's feminism for short).

The endgame of the campaign will be to convince companies that parity equals profits - having fairer representation by women will help a company's bottom line. This dream team of extraordinary spin-doctors will get twenty minutes to pitch their ideas to a roomful of business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland this coming January. Once they’re done, a panel of powerful, ruthless and witty women will interrogate their ideas before the audience too has a go. This unconventional little mission will be filmed and, all going well, if the end result is good enough, a half-hour special about it will air next year on CNBC in EMEA and APAC and stream on CNBC.com. Nobody will actually be paying for a global campaign to rebrand the f word next year, it's just an exercise to get some great ideas, but maybe if the ideas are interesting enough, someone might pick them up.

This is all thanks to the World Economic Forum and a delegate who may not wish to be named since her own gender parity project is yet to be launched. I met her in Davos last year where I was televising a debate for CNBC. She described her commitment to gender equality and I was inspired but couldn't immediately think of a sensible way to be a rebel for the cause. It was 3am, in the Davos piano bar, a drink-spilling oasis of zero inhibitions and I’d had two hours sleep for too many nights so was all emotion and good intentions with no clues. (It happens the fourth or fifth night of every WEF event. I grow desperate to unlock the hero within.)

I wanted to challenge myself to do something about the fact that on the one hand, I resented gender inequality and on the other, I cringed at feminist stereotypes overly worthy women. I figured if I could create an opportunity to inspire change, even teeny tiny change, through skilfully packaged content and a clever idea, this would be one small thing I could do and personally get satisfaction from. And I started mulling... eventually coming up with this little project.

I asked WEF’s gender parity team and the woman who inspired me if they would support a debate at Davos that used a playful concept to deliver a critical message on gender inequality and this week they officially agreed so that has given me a base. But it's just a starting place. I want to grow it from there and you'll be able to read about whether I achieve that right here. This is the official diary of the rebranding campaign. Watch this space.

Bad News and Irrelevant News

This is why I never want to work for the BBC. (Never again, I mean. I did and left.) They completed interesting research on Britain’s gender pay gap (widening) but released it with a headline saying: ‘Women are earning more than men in some public sector organisations - but only in the lower-paid grades, according to new research by the BBC.’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8044720.stm

Firstly, it’s dull. I know my blog headlines aren’t great but I don’t care if anybody reads, I'm just tapping away in my bedroom for the relaxation. The BBC is meant to speak to the masses.

Secondly, it’s irrelevant. This headline reminded me of that fantastic episode of ‘The Office’ (British version) where Ricky Gervais’ character, David Brent finds out he has been promoted but half his staff are being laid off. He tells them he has good news and bad news and then fills them in, but one replies "that wasn't good news and bad news, just bad news and irrelevant news", or something to that effect. You probably had to be there.

Anyway, this headline is irrelevant news. To start with, a low pay-grade public sector job is hardly something to get excited about – no offence to those noble women and men who take pride in holding such a position. Good for you. You are better people than I. But really, it’s not ‘problem solved’? I’m guessing men can’t stand lower paid public sector jobs and it’s because long suffering women hang in there that they end up earning more.

The real story from this research was that when part time workers are taken into account, men earn on average 23% more than women doing the equivalent job. Another depressing statistic but how boring life would be without challenges and this is a good one.

Offsetting the Gender Pay Gap - How's this idea?

I've just had the best idea. Net-a-porter should be thanking me for this marketing tip. I was sitting here reading a bunch of depressing gender pay gap stories because my blog instructor (yes... might as well get some formal training before unleashing myself on you) said I had to learn to react to news stories, which made me think I had to get angry about something and I’m not good at that.

Also, I want my kind of feminism to be the non-angry kind so I was sitting here working out how to react happily to gender inequality. Not easy. Then Eureka: Companies should discount their products for women by the same proportion as the gender pay gap - even things that way.

“Want a plasma TV? $2000 for you Sir, but Madam if you buy, it’s just $1548 because your hourly rate for tolerating the same morale-destroying office politics is 22.6% lower than your husband's assuming you’re an average woman and today we’re treating you that way”.

States could enforce by law that retailers had to discount goods for female purchasers proportionate to the pay gap. It could spur pay rises for women across the board and companies wouldn't suffer because knowing us, we'd all go straight out to spend our increased cash on basic needs like anti-wrinkle creams. It could backfire. We could find ourselves demoted so our pay looked high in relation to our role. I guess we’d have to counter that with extra discounts proportionate to discrepancies in leadership representation. OK, it’s getting slightly complicated but the Internet required code, cables and whole community of people who think like Chris Anderson so in comparison a bit of math and some law enforcement shouldn’t overwhelm us. I’m onto something.

Rebirth of the Reluctant Feminist

Until my 30s I believed whole-heartedly that if a woman complained of sexism it was an excuse. She wasn’t very good at her job or wasn’t good at navigating a male-dominated environment. But in my 30s things began to bug me. Female friends were passed over for promotion for no apparent reason. Friends with babies were exhausting themselves trying to excel in a corporate structure that seemed better suited to men. And most hideously, women sometimes conspired to prevent the success of female peers. It all annoyed me but the woman-on-woman rivalry was what compelled me to act. It’s common and shameful.

Anyway, without getting into details that will allow certain colleagues to identify themselves, I noticed women fell into two camps – those who compete with other women and those who collaborate. The ‘compete’ women look you up and down when you enter the room. The ‘collaborators’ invite you out for bubbles after work, make you laugh or cry (usually both and several times during any night) and remind you why it’s wonderful to be a woman.

One day, when I was exasperated by the behaviours of a few in the ‘compete’ category I decided to channel this energy into something positive by offering my voluntary help to an inspiring woman who is launching a gender equality project (more on that once she’s ready to go public). My offer was to produce a televised debate on the subject to help publicise her launch. I asked a senior producer friend if she would support my initiative and her immediate answer was “I’m not a feminist”. Ugh? Gobsmacked! If feminism stood for equality between genders why would a strong, intelligent, kind and successful woman like her not want to be a part of that? I tried to imagine a black African saying “I’m not for racial equality!” with the same horror and fear.

So while rivalry among women fuelled my emotions around this subject, witnessing widespread shame over feminism helped focus my actions. I don’t believe in asking people to change. Change has to be inspired from within. But I can do small things to help make feminism desirable again. Making feminism funky, inclusive and unthreatening seems like a necessary prerequisite to mobilising half the population (preferably more). It also seems like a fun and rewarding challenge and will allow me to work with some remarkable and inspiring women.

I also want to find out if my increasingly frequent observations of things being not quite right are substantiated by research. Sadly, the limited research I have done so far suggests the reality is far worse than I had observed. I’ve concluded I am not good acknowledging things that depress me!

And finally, I want to envisage how the future might look if this pattern of inequality that we have come to accept changes quite dramatically. It is worth thinking about this carefully because I suspect women aren’t going to like all the implications of a fairer world. That habit of desiring men who are rich and powerful may need to be revisited, for example. Maybe this is what we’re afraid of. But I believe we should trust our gut, as women are so great at doing, accept that the change may have some uncomfortable bits and journey fourth into the unknown with confidence.

Birth of a Reluctant Feminist

A few events in 1992 created a frustration that disappeared for a while but re-emerged around my 35th birthday. So I’ve decided to create something positive from it. I was an experimental post-graduate sociologist back then. A university tutor by day, a drummer in the weekends and a dancer every Thursday night but that was a bad combination. When my professional dance troupe got a nightclub gig (a harmless fashion show with a few of synchronised twists and twirls) I apparently ‘crossed the line’. My male students found it hard to concentrate and a significant number felt they no longer needed to show me respect. It wasn’t a tragedy. I just quit the dance troupe, died my naturally blonde hair red, and satisfied my urge to be attention's centre by performing as Roxie in the next door town’s production of Chicago. But this was my first experience of having to alter behaviour that felt authentic and harmless because professional success required me to. I understand. Men modify behaviour too. It doesn’t stop it feeling frustrating though.

The event that really sticks from that year, however, is when two post graduate students from the women studies department which shared our brown and dowdy sociology high-rise approached me after departmental drinks to ask if I wore deodorant. When I blushed and confirmed they looked at each other with disgust, flicked their henna-died Mohawks and said ‘we thought so’. It was better than being asked the question because I stank, I guess, but only marginally. This felt like women-on-women warfare. I was a traitor to the cause and nothing less than disregard for personal hygiene would be sufficient to show my loyalty to their superior league of Lesbos.

A few years later, one of their lecturers took her own life at that brown, dowdy, high-rise. I heard she jumped off the roof. Her tragic death bore no relation to anything I’ve said above but it became a symbol to me of the sad lessons I learnt in that place - that so often we women (probably all people, but I’m concerned here with women) focus more on our divisions than on our similarities, that we often confuse power with masculinity to the point where we don’t even know what it feels like to be powerful in a female way. Through our in-fighting, bra-burning and man-blaming, we have given feminism a shockingly bad name. On a bad day I’m ashamed of my gender. On a good day, especially after an evening out, with a group of compassionate, smiling ladies and too much champagne, I love us so much I feel an all-consuming excitement over what we women can contribute to this world, especially if we start drawing more effectively, unashamedly, without bitterness or hesitation on our unique feminine resources. I don’t believe in asking others to change – I’m definitely a ‘live and let live’ kind of a gal - but I figure I can lead by example, living every day in my own authentic way, drawing power from my female attributes wherever it feels right to do so and using my understanding of the media to highlight and celebrate other women who do the same – whether butch or girly, lesbian or straight, blackberry addicts or stay-at-home mums, quiet or as stroppy as hell. Let’s learn how to be powerful women our way (which will mean as many different ways as there are different women) but that diversity will just make this journey of discovery more exciting.