I originally wrote this post on International Women’s Day and in the middle of Women’s History Month. As a general rule, I am highly skeptical of this phenomenon, whether it’s this or Black History Month, or Pride month or similar awareness celebrations. Of course, I think we should celebrate, or raise awareness of specific issues, but what ends up happening is that people put all of their representational energy into on month, rather than real representation, which should be happening all year round.
I appreciate companies’ attention to this, but the main problem that they bump up against is when they are seen as doing a poor job of this throughout the year, and then they want to throw confetti one day or one month per year. For many people, it feels hollow— like it’s not real and just a marketing stunt— and I saw and continue to see a LOT of that happening.
That is when folks tend to get push-back from the community, which I know feels hard because sometimes people are like, “Welp, I tried and I got crap for it, so I’m never trying again!” And that’s definitely not the issue. As with everything, it requires practice— scrapes and bumps, and learning from others.
If, as a company, you aren’t sure whether your marketing is going to land and you don’t have a lot of women (in the case of this month) on staff, phone a friend to at least 5 women from varying backgrounds and ask them how it reads. If you don’t know 5 women who are musicians, check out the hashtag for One Riff a Day and offer folks a little money for their input. Surveys, interviews, and focus groups can really go a long way!