Action Alert | The Improved GA Tally App Ups the Ante for Women of Color's Voices, Raising the Stakes on Inclusion
photo credit: Christina Morillo, via Pexels (cropped)
This week, GenderAvenger is releasing a new version of the GA Tally app that puts more emphasis on the representation of women of color. In this time of social change, our team explored how we could modify the GA Tally to challenge event organizers, best-of list-makers, and conversation hosts everywhere to ensure that the voices of women of color are included all the time. Otherwise, we will continue to have a public dialog that is incomplete.
Now, when there aren’t enough women of color present (a minimum of 25%) — even if women in general and men are equally represented — the GA Tally alerts you that there is more work to be done:
A pie chart can say a lot about who is at the table (or on Zoom) and who is heard. If you haven’t already, download the GA Tally and incorporate it into your everyday activist toolkit. As GA Founder Gina Glantz says, “Always begin with the numbers.”
Refining GenderAvenger tools is a team effort.
Here are some reflections from Gina Glantz (founder), Amber Coleman-Mortley (social media), and Isabel Wu (student/summer intern):
Gina Glantz:
As our team was going through the current circumstances, national conversation, and protests around Black Lives Matter, I realized that as much as I was proud of our highlighting women of color in the GA Tally a few years ago, in this moment it was insufficient. We needed to raise the stakes for organizers of meetings and creators of lists.
Since its inception, GenderAvenger’s core has been data. I have always insisted that we begin with the numbers. Many times over the recent years, there has been general surprise in the community to discover the paucity of women and women of color’s voices. I think with the new version of the GA Tally, it will become even more of a topic of discussion.
[Please hop over to Medium to read Gina’s latest: “Silence Stifles Change: Lifelong Learning and the Importance of Speaking Up”.]
Amber Coleman-Mortley:
We’re here to make sure we elevate women’s voices in the public dialog and ensure that women’s voices count. Men of color’s voices are relevant and valid and we want to make sure that they feel they are a part of this push towards a more equitable and more inclusive society. But if you look historically at social justice movements, it’s the women of color’s voices that are in the background. So, when we think about social justice, we want to make sure we are lifting up women’s voices, but specifically the voices of women of color in the public dialog.
There’s value in having conversations, especially in this moment. We sat down together, hashed it out, and had a very frank conversation. What is the problem we’re actually trying to solve? What’s our “why”? Where are the places we’re doing well and the places where we can improve? If you tackle this issue of racial justice with those kinds of questions in mind, you’re going to end up with something so much better than if one person just has an idea by themselves. There was an extreme amount of value and insight that came out of the discussion that I definitely appreciate.
Isabel Wu:
My work with GenderAvenger has had me thinking about how technology can be a vehicle for social change. In my experience, there are so many good things that technology can bring in terms of scaling up data collection to get a broad view of how women are represented, but there are also some things that we need to be sure we get right. The act of having a conversation was definitely important for GenderAvenger in terms of making sure that we are including women of color, but also in a way that is nuanced and sensitive to all of our experiences.
In the wake of Black Lives Matter, a lot of institutions are looking to make changes and are looking internally to see what they can do better. In my view, the GA Tally can be used internally to show where representation needs improvement and start bringing about awareness.
Spread the word, and make sure women of color count!
Let’s make sure women of color are on panels, keynote stages, quoted in the media, and more… To get us there, the updated @GenderAvenger #GATally requires at least 25% of women speakers to be women of color. Use it and create change! #GenderAvenger https://www.genderavenger.com/blog/action-alert-improved-ga-tally-app-women-of-color