For International Women's Day 2023, award winning journalist, Eleanor Mills, interviewed me for a global women's network and I'm really pleased we could share the filming here too.

We cover the barriers and bias that women face at work throughout our lives. I explain why I say "I became the Managing Director my Dad wanted me to marry" - we talk about competency bias and the reasons why it's vital to have these conversations every day and not just on IWD.

Enjoy! Keep being brilliant, Sophie XO

p.s. join in the conversation on Instagram @Courage_Is_Contagious_

One in two people will get cancer.

When it comes to health, it’s facts, not fiction, that are important.  I know we’ve all been guilty of asking Dr Google if something is ‘normal’.  We haven’t talked about women’s cancers yet on Courage is Contagious, so that’s what today is going to be all about.  Breast Cancer is now the most common cancer in the UK.  The positive news is that nearly 9 in 10 (85%) of women diagnosed with breast cancer in England survive their disease for five years or more compared to only 4 in ten back in the 1970s.

Thankfully it’s not me and Dr Google we are relying on today, I’m delighted to welcome Dr Fiona McCarthy who is a co-founder of the women's health hub The Bronte Clinic - who has a deeply impressive array of letters after her name (I’m not sure what they all mean!) but I do know that she is a consultant medical oncologist (cancer specialist) and aesthetic doctor (which means that she’s an anti wrinkle expert) with two decades of medical experience.  As well as her extensive clinical qualifications, she also maintains an academic interest and she was awarded a PhD by the University of London in 2017 for her work on the links between inflammation and cancer (I’ve got a question about that in a bit).

Join the conversation on Instagram @courage_is_contagious_

We don’t ask women to justify why they have children, so why on earth do we judge or ask women to justify why they don’t.

“Who’s going to look after you when you’re older”,”oh that’s because you’re married to your career” ,”oh I bet you’ll change your mind” - are all things people have said to me, many times, when I’ve mentioned that I don’t have children.

Of course people aren’t deliberately thoughtless or rude, it’s all tied up in society’s view of the role we women have to play.  And this is a world that places a disproportionately high value on following the conventional path of life. 

Tune in now to hear Sophie and Tai discuss being childfree and how to navigate some of the challenges this throws up and freedom it creates.

Listen on all podcast platforms and follow on Instagram @courage_is_contagious_

There’s no study I know of that says that men are better lawyers, leaders, doctors, prime ministers or presidents than women.  We’re 51% of the population, but we don’t run 51% of countries or companies.  Are men really biologically wired to be better?  

Study after study shows there’s an authority gap between men and women. Men are assumed to be competent, whereas we women have to prove it.  This silent questioning of our competency can also impact our mental health, our stress levels, create imposter syndrome….

Tune in now as Sophie Neary talks competency bias with Meta's Zehra Chatoo and learn about competency bias and what women and allies can do about it.

Follow Courage is Contagious on Instagram or Sophie on Linked In to watch and read more bias busting, glass ceiling shattering stories.

#courageiscontagious

Trigger warning - this episode talks about domestic abuse, mental health and alcoholism.

“I don’t know how you do it” said no one ever…to a high flying man.

The pressure for women to be perfect is cited as the leading cause of anxiety amongst us - we have to have the perfect job, and the perfect family and also look perfect all of the time.

And the consequences are omnipresent.  With one in five women suffering from ‘common mental disorders’ such as depression or anxiety in any given week.  (That’s compared to one in eight men).

I’m far from an expert on mental health, but I do know that we only grow stronger and reduce stigma by opening up and talking about taboo topics such as this.

Which is why I’m so honored to have our guest, Oshika, with us today.  When she first told me her quite extraordinary story, I burst into tears.  Her humility, her resilience and her strength and compassion shine through in everything she does.

Only the strong can be vulnerable, so Oshika thank you for being so strong in sharing your story with us.

Mind your bloody language! Half of the world’s population does, has or will have a period, but we spend most of our lives pretending or hiding that we do.  Even when we do talk about it, we use silly names “Aunty Flo”. “Time of the Month”, “Red Wedding” - we’re made to feel so ashamed about something so natural that there are over 5,000 slang terms for ‘period’.

Generations of women have been conditioned to believe that their periods are disgusting or shrameful, which has massive consequences for our bodies, our healthcare decisions, our sex lives and our overall well being.

Around the world, menstruation is framed as a problem (to be hidden) rather than a healthy bodily process....yet the menstrual cycle has enabled pretty much every single person on Earth to be born!

Join Meta's Sophie Neary as she speaks to charity Bloody Good Period about how to tackle period shame, period language and all things menstruation.  

"Talent is Equally Distributed, opportunity is not" is one of the phrases I find most helpful when thinking about diversity in the workplace.    Being a successful white woman doesn’t mean my career successes have come easy - but it does mean that the colour of my skin hasn’t made it even harder.  

Sometimes when we talk about women in the workplace, we overlook the inequity within gender inequality.  Intersectionality matters.  

The numbers speak for themselves – just 5% of leadership positions in UK tech are held by women, and only 2% of the entire tech workforce is black.  The number of black women in tech is so small I couldn’t find a % for it.  

The opportunity to give up the fight for equality is a privilege that no one should ever take, which is why this episode of Courage is Contagious aims to help us all improve our understanding on what we must do to better support black women at work.

Instagram: @courage_is_contagious_

A solo mum by choice is someone who decides to become a mother knowing they will be the sole parent of their child - at least from the outset.

Watch and listen now to hear how Julie decided to take control of her fertility and become a #solomumbychoice And learn how to make the workplace inclusive for the #SoloParent community.

We are hopefully all familiar with the motherhood penalty and the barriers and biases that face a woman the moment she announces she is pregnant.

But, we are probably less aware of the silence and stigma that surround other female health-related issues; invisible chains that hold us back, particularly because many are unseen and unspoken, and therefore remain hidden or misunderstood.

Perhaps none more so than fertility challenges, one in four women will suffer from pregnancy loss. And one in seven women will suffer fertility challenges in actually getting pregnant - meaning we suffer more from fertility problems than we do breast cancer or diabetes. But we never hear about them.

In this episode we hear from Laia, who shares her fertility challenges with dignity and grace.  In doing so she helps us understand how we can improve our approach to babyloss and infertility in the workplace.

Only the strong can be vulnerable and I hope all women who are going through their own fertility challenges know that you are not alone and that there is more to be done to support you.

"How did you get pregnant?" is not a question anyone would ever dream of asking a straight woman. Yet when it comes to two mum families, curiosity often gets the better of good manners, and it’s a question gay mums often face.  Watch and listen now to hear Meta Group Director, Sophie Neary, chat with Miriam Faber on her and her wife, Rachel's journey and how they are both biologically related to their children. And learn what we can all do to make the workplace an inclusive place where gay parents feel they belong. Follow us on @Courage_Is_Contagious on Instagram.