How to Beat the Excuses
Practical Responses to the Top 12 Excuses for a Lack of Women Speakers
Excuses? We’ve heard them all when it comes to the lack of women and women of color represented on conference stages, best-of lists, in bylines, etc. Read on for our favorite responses to our least favorite excuses.
Use our graphics next time you hear a poor excuse for a lack of women speakers!
Excuse #1
We know we have no women. Could you recommend some?
Sustainable cultural change begins within an organization. It’s the job of event producers, organizations, etc. to turn their awareness into action. There are so many databases waiting to be used, a quick Google or LinkedIn search is a great place to start.
Excuse #2
I tried, but a lot of women were unavailable.
Optics are everything! Signal to women that they are valued by putting in the effort to find them. If you are not already featuring women, they are not going to seek you out.
Excuse #3
I can’t believe I didn’t notice. How embarrassing.
Sadly, this still happens, but it can also be a starting point for change. Action begins with awareness and, sometimes, embarrassment.
Excuse #4
You know, we usually have better balance. Just look at last year…
No one wants to point to past glory days of good gender balance to account for current blunders. It’s not a good look. Be deliberate about equality when you start planning.
Excuse #5
This is just the first announcement. Stay tuned.
First impressions count. Can you wait a little longer before releasing that announcement? Announcing only men signals to women that they are not valued or welcome. They notice.
Excuse #6
There aren’t many women in this field, so 20% representation is pretty good.
With attitudes like that, we’ll never get to parity. It takes conscious effort from all of us, especially those with the power to directly influence who is heard.
Excuse #7
There were a lot of women in the audience.
If women don’t feel valued or see themselves onstage, they won’t come back. Women featured onstage is a measure of how much an organization values women’s voices and diverse perspectives.
Excuse #8
We have a lot of women onstage as moderators.
Don’t get us wrong, we value a great moderator, but we also value women onstage as experts. Do both!
Excuse #9
We have a lot of women on our team.
Having women in your company doesn’t mean everything you do will be automatically equitable. The work needs to happen at every level.
Excuse #10
There weren’t any women who met our criteria.
There is something wrong with your parameters if they yield the same old faces. Times are changing and so can you.
Excuse #11
We have special programming for women.
Putting women in silos minimizes their voices. If it’s important to have a special conversation about women in your industry, it’s important enough for men to hear.
Excuse #12
Our President is a woman and she opened and closed the event.
Women in leadership can inspire more women to speak up but we can’t rely on one woman leader to carry all women and their voices on her back.