Light Work by Dear Patriarchy

If this episode is resonating with you, send us a message - we’d love to hear from you 🤍

                                        *** TW: Sexual Assault/Sexual Abuse ***
Welcome to Episode 18: It's Britney, bitch! Or rather, it's the truth about what happens to many (if not all) young girls on their journey to womanhood. We dive into some triggering topics in this week's episode, including society's sexualisation of young girls, sexual abuse and assault and the insidious impact of rape culture. We talk about how the fetishisation of young girl's bodies translates into the way in which women are policed within the corporate world, including the brutalising impact of respectability politics. We discuss how "dressing for the job you want" was never really meant for women and how the expectations placed on girls and women in the world as well as the workplace are not only conflicting but deeply damaging. It may not be an easy listen but we think you'll agree that it's a necessary conversation to have.

- Please check out our "Feminism 101" suggested reading list here if you're at a loose end for a great read from an incredible female author
- Find out more about the amazing designers, Nubefy, behind the graphics we use here

If this episode is resonating with you, send us a message - we’d love to hear from you 🤍

Welcome to Episode 17 which is a purely anecdotal session, no research or statistics on this one, just an intimate discussion about mental health, religion and the ways in which self doubt insidiously finds its way through any amount of armour. Jenni & Lisa discuss how a recent interaction in the process of submitting their book proposal brought out deep-seated insecurities, anxieties and doubt about their own abilities. They discuss how they've overcome those feelings and also discuss how the changes that COVID-19 has wrought on the corporate environment has done nothing to uproot and eliminate the existing systemic inequalities which are deeply entrenched in the workplace.

- Please check out our "Feminism 101" suggested reading list here if you're at a loose end for a great read from an incredible female author
- Find out more about the amazing designers, Nubefy, behind the graphics we use here

If this episode is resonating with you, send us a message - we’d love to hear from you 🤍

Welcome to Episode 16 where we briefly touch on trolling & cancel culture before jumping into our main subject of why being a "good girl" gets you nowhere. Jenni shares a recent experience where she was forced to evaluate how the rules she was taught as a girl were  vastly different to what boys are taught (she also explains what a "risk bucket" is). We discuss what would happen if women stopped adhering to the social rules of being beautiful, smiling, quiet, perfect women who dumb themselves down and give their power to men. We also discuss how the oppressive culture that has evolved within Conservative White Christianity continues to have a negative impact on the enfranchisement of women. Ultimately, the conversation is about whether women should be playing by the rules and being the "good girl" society expects us to be, if the rules are only in place to keep us subjugated.

- Suzannah Weiss' August 2016 article for Bustle entitled "Women's Value Doesn't Just Lie In Pleasing Others" for the foundation on how society deems women a "good girl" or not.
- Hattie Gladwell's May 2019 article for Metro entitled "Someone Found a ’30 Ways To Keep Your Husband’ Rule Book and Women are Shocked" for the Conservative Christian marriage advice.
- Amy Morin's February 2018 article for INC. entitled "A 40-Year-Study Found That Kids Who Do This Are More Likely to Earn the Most Money When They Grow Up" for information about how children that don't follow the rules turn out as adults.
- Please check out our "Feminism 101" suggested reading list here if you're at a loose end for a great read from an incredible female author
- Find out more about the amazing designers, Nubefy, behind the graphics we use here

If this episode is resonating with you, send us a message - we’d love to hear from you 🤍

Welcome to Episode 15 where we discuss a tweet that was sent to us detailing how women represented the total US job losses in December 2020. The article and statistics behind this tweet as well as the global statistics we found outlining that women are (once again) the biggest losers in the job market due to fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, among other factors, shook us to the core. We discuss what it means to be a woman in a workforce that tends to view your employment as a luxury and why women are overwhelmingly the last to be hired and first to be fired. We definitely don't have any answers for a problem of this magnitude but we know that starting this conversation is the most important thing that we can do. We hope you agree.

- Annalyn Kutz's January 2021 article for CNN Business entitled "The US Economy Lost 140,000 Jobs in December. All of Them Were Held by Women" was the foundation piece for our conversation
- Catalyst's December 2020 research piece entitled "The Detrimental Impact of Covid-19 on Gender and Racial Equality: Quick Take" provided multiple statistical resources for the US, UK and European job markets & economies
- International Labour Organization's December 2020 press release entitled "81 Million Jobs Lost as COVID-19 Creates Turmoil in Asia-Pacific Labour Markets" provided statistics for the Asia-Pacific job markets & economies
- BBC Business December 2020 article entitled "Unemployment rate: How many people are out of work?" provided statistics for the UK job market & economy
- Reuters April 2020 article entitled "Africa could lose 20 million jobs due to pandemic: AU study" provided statistical information on the job markets & economies of the African continent
- Anadalou Agency's October 2020 article entitled "COVID-19: Some 4.5M African jobs to be Lost in 2020" for further information on the job markets & economies of the African continent
- Please check out our "Feminism 101" suggested reading list here if you're at a loose end for a great read from an incredible female author
- Find out more about the amazing designers, Nubefy, behind the graphics we use here

If this episode is resonating with you, send us a message - we’d love to hear from you 🤍

Welcome to Episode 14 where we discuss the burnout of nearly a year living in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic combined with the political and social upheaval that is taking place around the world. We begin with a conversation about the trope of the angry feminist and how it has personally affected us before moving on to a conversation about the multiple levels of stress and pressure weighing down on us all at the moment, including how it affects our physical and mental health. While we don't have a single "silver bullet" cure, we talk about some of the methods we use to address and reduce our stress levels while still remaining as present as possible. We have provided 3 separate sources for mental health support (UK specific, US specific and a globally minded support page with links) and we send you love & light.

- Jennifer Senior's August 2020 article for the New York Times entitled "We’ve Hit a Pandemic Wall" for US-specific coronavirus statistics & Daphne de Marneffe quote
- US-specific coronavirus mental health statistics for 2020 released by the CDC
- The American Psychological Association's October 2020 "Stress in America" study
- ABC News January 2021 article entitled "The Mental Toll of the Capitol Siege on the American Psyche"
- UK specific mental health support page
- US specific mental health support page
- Global mental health support page
- Please check out our "Feminism 101" suggested reading list here if you're at a loose end for a great read from an incredible female author
- Find out more about the amazing designers, Nubefy, behind the graphics we use here

If this episode is resonating with you, send us a message - we’d love to hear from you 🤍

Welcome to Episode 13 where we go off on the popular hashtag #notallmen and what it actually means when it's said in relation to the sharing of women's lived experiences. We talk about how using this phrase centres men in women's issues (a common tactic of the Patriarchy) and discuss where the phrase is believed to have originated and when it came into popular use. We take a couple detours on this episode, starting our conversation with the Capitol Hill riot and going "off piste" in our main discussion, touching on incels, violence against women and how the accessibility of pornography and rampant objectification of women in today's society.

- Background information on the use of #notallmen
- Clementine Ford's May 2018 article for Literary Hub entitled "How Many Ways Can Men Say 'Not All Men'?" which was used in the discussion of how the different ways #notallmen is used in conversation about women's issues
- Jess Zimmerman's April 2014 article for Time entitled "Not All Men: A Brief History of Every Dude's Favorite Argument" which was used in the discussion of what the use of #notallmen does to a conversation about women's issues
- Vaishnavi Mohan's May 2020 article for Breakthrough entitled "6 Reasons Why #NOTALLMEN Disrupts the Conversation on Gender Equality" which was used in the discussion about how using #notallmen has a negative impact on gender equality
- Please check out our "Feminism 101" suggested reading list here if you're at a loose end for a great read from an incredible female author
- Find out more about the amazing artists, Nubefy, behind the graphics we use here

If this episode is resonating with you, send us a message - we’d love to hear from you 🤍

Welcome to Episode 12, our first discussion on systemic racism and how it impacts the working women, specifically those from BIPOC/BAMER communities. We discuss the US & UK statistics on the endemic racial inequity within the corporate world and read several narratives highlighting the experiences of BIPOC/BAMER employees within a racist workplace. This episode is the introduction to what will be a series of conversations about systemic racism in the corporate world, some of which will involve special guest speakers to add personal narrative to our statistical and research-lead discussion. We hope you'll join us on what we feel is our most important journey.

- Personal narratives taken from Karen Yuan's June 2020 article in Fortune entitled "Working While Black: Stories from Black Corporate America"
- August 2020 article for The New Republic entitled "Corporate America’s Hollow Denunciations of Systemic Racism" for the discussion of what systemic racism is
- Society for Human Resource Management 2020 report for statistics on Black workers seeing racial discrimination far more than their White colleagues
- 2020 study entitled "The Natural Hair Bias in Job Recruitment" for statistic on natural hairstyles being viewed as less professional than straightened hairstyles
- Ruqaiijah Yearby's article for the ABA entitled "The Impact of Structural Racism in Employment and Wages on Minority Women’s Health" for the US poverty rate statistics
- 2015 McGregor-Smith review on behalf of the UK government entitled "Race in the Workplace" for statistical information relating to racial inequity in the UK
- University of Manchester 2019 study commissioned by the TUC entitled "Racism at Work"  for UK statistics on racial harassment and inequity within the workplace
- Adwoa Bagalini's July 2020 article for the World Economic Forum entitled "5 Ways Racism is Bad for Business - and What We Can Do About it" for how racism impacts the workplace
- June 2020 Edelman report entitled "A Universal Demand for Change" for statistics on consumers boycotting brands as a result of their political stance
- McKinsey 2020 report entitled "Diversity Wins" from which the profitability statistic was taken
- GlassDoor 2019 Diversity & Inclusion Study that advised on millennial employees experiencing/witnessing racism 3.5x more than 55+ year old employees
- September 2020 article for Fortune entitled "Change the world—For Whom? Why Addressing Racism Must Be a Top Corporate Priority" with 4 steps (we didn't exactly agree with) for addressing systemic racism in the workplace

If this episode is resonating with you, send us a message - we’d love to hear from you 🤍

Welcome to Episode 11 where we end 2020 by burning down the house on women taking up space. We dive into how the historical pressure on women to shrink, expand and, ultimately, shrink again has a direct correlation to our socio-political enfranchisement. We discuss why women apologise far more then men and what we can do to stop it. We debate how women can authentically take up space, get angry about NASA's treatment of its female astronauts and ultimately agree that, like most things we discuss on the show, a culture shift needs to take place in order to truly support women on their career path.

- Historical "evolution" of women's bodies taken from Danielle Friedman's October 2019 article for Forge entitled "What Happens When Women Start Taking Up Space?"
- Amy Morin's March 2019 article for INC. entitled "Women Really Do Apologize More Than Men. Here's Why (and It Has Nothing to Do With Men Refusing to Admit Wrongdoing)" which explores the differences between how men & women apologise
- 2010 study published in Psychological Science entitled "Why Women Apologize More Than Men: Gender Differences in Thresholds for Perceiving Offensive Behavior" from which statistics were taken on the different ways in which men & women apologise
- Kristin Wong's April 2019 article for the New York Times article entitled "No, You Don’t Have to Stop Apologizing" from which information for how to re-frame apologies
- Priya Fielding-Singh's, Devon Magliozzi's and Swethaa Ballakrishnen's August 2018 article for the Harvard Business Review entitled "Why Women Stay Out of the Spotlight at Work" which was drawn from during the discussion about "intentional invisibility" and authenticity in the workplace
- NASA cancelling the all-female space walk because the right size suits weren't available taken from Jacey Fortin's & Karen Zraick's March 2019 article for the New York Times entitled "First All-Female Spacewalk Canceled Because NASA Doesn’t Have Two Suits That Fit"
- Sara Coughlin's July 2017 article for Refinery 29 entitled "How 7 Women Take Up Space In Their Everyday Lives" for personal experiences from women about how they choose to take up space
- Caroline Castrillon's July 2019 slightly confusing article for Forbes entitled "How Women Can Stop Apologizing And Take Their Power Back" whose suggested actions for women we didn't agree with
- Please check out our "Feminism 101" suggested reading list here if you're at a loose end for a great read from an incredible female author
- Find out more about the amazing artists, Nubefy, behind the graphics we use here

If this episode is resonating with you, send us a message - we’d love to hear from you 🤍

Welcome to Episode 10 where we discuss the burn out many women feel around the festive season, especially with the added stressor of navigating the holidays during a global pandemic. We talk about emotional labour/labor, mental load and how our culture of “more is better” is grinding us all down. We delve into the stress and pressure women feel to make things “magical” while grieving our loss of “normality” due to COVID-19 and how it can trigger unhealthy coping strategies. We wrap up with 5 ways (Lisa’s fave) to deal with what the holidays bring up for you and how to bring what really matters back into focus.

- Christobel Hastings' December 2019 article for Stylist entitled "Christmas Burnout: Here’s How to Tackle Festive Anxiety if You’re Feeling Overwhelmed" for holiday burnout statistics and how to deal with it
- Lynn Varacalli Cavanaugh's December 2018 article for Progressive Women's Network entitled "Feel the Burnout? Your Team May Need a (Holiday) Break" for statistics on women leaders experiencing burnout at higher rates than men
- November 2016 report by the Office for National Statistics entitled "Women shoulder the responsibility of 'unpaid work'" for the statistics on unpaid care work & house work in the UK
- Sophie Wilkinson's December 2018 article for BBC3 entitled "Why Was Everyone Talking About Emotional Labour in 2018?" for a brief on emotional labour/labor and Arlie Hochschild's 1983 book, The Managed Heart
- Further information on how alcohol's interaction with oestrogen/estrogen can impact your body in Very Well Mind's November 2020 article entitled "How Alcohol Can Impair the Body's Hormone System" and specifically relating to women's reactions to excessive alcohol consumption in Ria Health's August 2019 article entitled "How Alcohol Affects Women’s Hormones, Before and After Menopause"
- Please check out our "Feminism 101" suggested reading list here if you're at a loose end for a great read from an incredible female author!

If this episode is resonating with you, send us a message - we’d love to hear from you 🤍

Welcome to Episode 9 where we do a deep dive into 3 key terms we discussed in Part 1 of the Boardroom: Mansplaining, Hepeating and Imposter Syndrome. We talk about where these terms originated and their background, how they present in the Boardroom and our personal experience with each of them. We finish up with 4 ways you can turn the tide within your own company and help nurture a safe environment for working women to thrive in.

- Rebecca Solnit's 2008 essay on TomDispatch entitled "Men Explain Things to Me: Facts Didn't Get in Their Way" which lead to the birth of the term "Mansplaining"
- Kim Goodwin's July 2018 essay on BBC Workplace entitled "Mansplaining, Explained in One Simple Chart" which includes Goodwin's excellent "Mansplaining" chart
- Olivia Petter's November 2017 article in The Independent entitled "What Is Hepeating?" which describes the origin and background of the term "Hepeating"
- Zameena Mejia's October 2017 article on CNBC entitled "How to Combat ‘Hepeating’ at Work, According to a Harvard Professor" which includes Iris Bohnet's description of, and suggestions for combatting, "Hepeating"
- Juliet Eilperin's September 2016 article in the Washington Post entitled "White House Women Want to Be in the Room Where it Happens" which describes the use of "Amplification" by female White House staff
- Abigail Adams' June 2018 article for Time entitled "Yes, Impostor Syndrome Is Real. Here's How to Deal With It" describing the origins of "Imposter Syndrome" and who experiences it
- Danielle Page's October 2017 article for NBC entitled "How Impostor Syndrome Is Holding You Back at Work" where "Imposter Syndrome" is further explained
- Information on gendered brain differences which influence "Imposter Syndrome" taken from the January 2012 study published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information entitled "Sex Differences in Anterior Cingulate Cortex Activation During Impulse Inhibition and Behavioral Correlates"
- Please check out our "Feminism 101" suggested reading list here if you're at a loose end for a great read from an incredible female author!
- Find out more about the amazing artists, Nubefy, behind the graphics we use here