New Year, New Actions! Make Your Voice Heard!

Did you notice that this week’s Action Alert featured actions generated by GenderAvenger community members? Looking back on 2016, we saw our community use the GA Tally, send emails about gender balance in all sorts of arenas, and leverage social media to call out gender representation in organizations they were personally invested in. As we look forward to a new year we want to do more to share what you are seeing and acting on. GenderAvenger will still tally the gender representation at conferences, on panels, and in the media but this year we plan to feature more of your findings and actions in our alerts so the entire GA community can support you.

You already know women’s voices are crucial at conferences, on panels, and in organizational leadership, but we want to hear about how gender balance affects you beyond your professional life. When you see newspaper ads for public events, panels on your favorite TV shows, or attend meetings in your local community: where are the women? Take note of gender ratios deserving of reward or condemnation and consider taking action by creating tallies. GenderAvenger, and your fellow Avenger community, will have your back.

Perhaps you feel passionate about one particular organization like Avenger Jess Esch who has been keeping monthly tabs on gender representation in The New Yorker since 2013. Or perhaps you had never taken a GenderAvenger action before but find inspiration in our newest Avenger, Kathleen Schatzberg, who found the gender balance on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac so appalling she has taken to writing them almost weekly. You will hear from Avenger Kathleen in the coming weeks as she delves into what sparked her campaign aimed at Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac on NPR.

GenderAvenger is about passion that turns into a crusade for change. In 2017, we will join together with you to inform each other, learn from one another, and amplify all of our voices.

Let’s make 2017 a year of change, together.