A New Normal | March

Women's History Month

Happy Women's History Month!

For this week's newsletter, we asked our team to shine a light on the women in history who have inspired them most.

It was difficult to whittle the list down to just three, but our favourites include the outstanding abolitionist, Harriet Tubman, the British author, Mary Shelley, and the LGBT+ activist, Marsha P. Johnson.

Marsha P. Johnson

"As well as being instrumental in the Stonewall uprisings, and the establishment of Pride, she also spent much of her life supporting and advocating for young, LGBT+ people who found themselves homeless.

She gave so much of her life to advocating for others, even when experiencing the pain of spells of poor mental health, and horrific discrimination. She was described as the "Drag mother" for LGBT+ youth ostracised for their family, and someone who found "joy" in drag - which comes across in every picture I've ever seen of her beaming out from under a series of incredible hats."

- Trish Driver, Founder.

Mary Shelley

"Arguably she invented science fiction. Certainly, she wrote one of the best-known novels in the English language, Frankenstein. She was 18 at the time. Every time someone says that science fiction is "just for boys", all we women have to do is point to Mary Shelley and show how her novel is clearly based on the science of the time."

- Cheryl Morgan, Trans Awareness Trainer

Harriet Tubman

"After escaping slavery herself, Harriet returned, rescued and freed 70 people 16 years before slavery was abolished. She set up the Underground Railroad to provide safe passage and 'never lost a passenger'. In 2016 she replaced a former slave owner to feature on the $20 bill. I admire her fearlessness, empathy and determination to do what was right."

- Gigi Gordon, Comms & Creative Manager

This Week at A New Normal

Intersectional Women's Month

Our Women's Month Podcast Special

Last week, Gigi interviewed our fabulous founder on the importance of celebrating all women on International Women's Day.

The pair discussed allyship, intersectionality, and what we can all do to be a little more inclusive.

This week's episode of Diversity on Screen focuses on women, taking a look at intersectionality and feminism in Cuarón's academy award-winning film, Roma.

Digressions include: Ulysses, men with sticks, The Conjuring, Peep Show, parenting methods, and the power of black & white cinema.

A question for listeners: are your memories in black and white?

Watch

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D&I News

Women's History Month

I was fed up with companies using International Women’s Day to brag – so I set up a Twitter bot to expose their pay gaps

Ali Fensome and Francesca Lawson set up a Twitter bot to expose companies that were celebrating #InternationalWomensDay without working to tackle the pay gaps that exist between their male and female staff.

Companies with over 250 employees are legally required to provide this information, although few people actually know about it. This bot changed that. The profile took Twitter by storm and had over 250k followers within hours.

Research has found that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 25% more likely to have above-average profitability than companies in the bottom. When the number of female executives is up to more than 30%, those companies were more likely to outperform companies that don’t.

The business case for diversity has been proven through research time and time again, and we are proud to be both a female-led and female-founded business.

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