[{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/02\/20\/how-to-advance-gender-equality-and-diversity\/#Article","articleBody":"With regard to gender equality and diversity, I recently wrote, \u201cWe\u2019ve had to temper progress with extreme patience, being told that progress takes time. But the truth is, it has taken\u00a0lifetimes, and equality still hasn\u2019t arrived.\u00a0And that isn\u2019t good enough anymore.\u201d\nOne of the most exasperating points of advancing equality and diversity is that we\u2019ve had so much talk, and so little action.\nGood-meaning people simply have no idea how to start driving meaningful change on this topic beyond a panel, conversation, or article written.\nIn October of 2017, I heard\u00a0Pooja Bhalla say,\u00a0\u201cWe need role models to kill that unconscious bias that we all have\u2026we need affinity programs to remind women that they can be leaders, too. Women don\u2019t imagine themselves going beyond a level, because they don\u2019t see women there.\u201d\nHer words hit home.\nI realized that between myself and a couple of other people, we could almost immediately begin making changes that would work toward eliminating bias.\nDesperately Seeking Susan: Stock images lack women in leadership roles\nIn November, I began working to make our images more diverse and inclusive.\nThis wasn\u2019t as easily accomplished as one might think, thanks to an incredible bias that remains: Even in the land of staged images, where equality and diversity could easily reign (it is pretend, after all), it was difficult to find images without bias.\nThough Getty Images is actively trying to remedy the situation, there\u2019s still much work to be done.\nTake, for example, page one returns in iStock when searching \u201cCEO\u201d and \u201cwoman CEO.\u201d\nWomen still remain largely unrepresented, and when they are, they are always thin, attractive, and appear quite young (or they don\u2019t appear at all, just their legs).\nYou\u2019d have to search quite a bit to find a woman with gray hair who looked like an executive, but men with gray hair appear on the first returns.\nWhile you might think these images don\u2019t have an impact in the real world, they really do. As Bhalla said,\nif you don\u2019t see women leading, you cannot begin to imagine them leading.\nJust as with men, by the time women have learned enough to be in CEO, CMO, CFO, or other leadership positions, they likely have some gray hair as well, but women don\u2019t appear to age in stock photos.\nThis isn\u2019t a phenomenon that only exists in images; it\u2019s quite prevalent throughout the entertainment industry, and noted by Jeff Guo of The Washington Post, \u201cAnd past age 40, men claim 80 percent of the leading roles, while women only get 20 percent.\u201d\nAssessing ourselves: Uncomfortable results and conversations\nUpon working to actively eliminate cognitive bias, I audited our images from a year prior to hearing Bhalla\u2019s challenge, and will monitor them for one year after.\nThe results for the year prior (2016-2017) were disappointing to all parties involved. Keep in mind, it\u2019s primarily women responsible for the strategy, content, and images of this site. As working women, it was stunning that our images scarcely reflected working women whatsoever.\n(An image could fall into more than one category. For instance, an image could be of a woman and a person of color, or feature equal numbers of men and women, etc. In 2017, we began publishing nearly each weekday, which was a big change from the former 2-3 times per week in the past, so the numbers for 2018 will reflect a higher total amount of images than 2016-2017.)\nOur results for October 2016-October 2017:\nImages of men: 75\nImages of women: 17\nImages w\/POC: 18\nImages w\/no people: 106\nImages w\/equal number of men and women: 21\nMale authors: 127\nFemale authors: 89\nSeventeen images of women in a year! Of those seventeen images, I\u2019d bet that half of them are of women shopping, but didn\u2019t think of that until the audit was complete. However, if you think that a few people cannot make a big difference, may I present the numbers from November 2017 to the date of publication of this post.\nOur results from November 2017 to the date of publication of this article:\nImages of men: 13\nImages of women: 15\nImages w\/POC: 11\nImages w\/no people: 38\nImages w\/equal number of men and women: 12\nMale authors: 46\nFemale authors: 33\nOften lack of progress isn\u2019t a statement of the will of people, but rather confusion over where to begin, or the belief that one, two, or a few people cannot make a difference. This couldn\u2019t be further from the truth.\nAs Margaret Mead said, \u201cNever doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.\u201d\nEquality for all: Go from messaging about inclusion to making it a reality.","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/02\/20\/how-to-advance-gender-equality-and-diversity\/#Article_Person","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/02\/20\/how-to-advance-gender-equality-and-diversity\/#Article_Person_ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/23x6xj3o92m9361dbu2ij362-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/JennVandeZande_Profile_Pic_2018-1-150x150.jpg"},"name":"Jenn Vande Zande","sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/jennvzande","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jennvandezande"],"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/jenn-vande-zande\/"},"dateModified":"2021-11-23T23:03:24+00:00","datePublished":"2018-02-20T11:00:00+00:00","description":"It starts with perception: You have to see gender equality to attain it. How to quickly begin advancing gender equality and diversity in your organization.","headline":"Making a mark: How to begin advancing gender equality and diversity","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/02\/20\/how-to-advance-gender-equality-and-diversity\/#Article_ImageObject","height":"630","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/thumbnail-ce56ee5c15138c312237c2ea59fea65d-1200x630.jpeg","width":"1200"},"mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/02\/20\/how-to-advance-gender-equality-and-diversity\/","name":"Making a mark: How to begin advancing gender equality and diversity","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/","additionalType":"https:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/wiki\/Q1193236","description":"Relevant, timely information & analysis on commerce trends, both consumer-facing and B2B.","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/23x6xj3o92m9361dbu2ij362-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/themes\/hybris_foc\/assets\/images\/layout\/logo-new-2x.png?_=1","height":"96","url":"https:\/\/23x6xj3o92m9361dbu2ij362-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/themes\/hybris_foc\/assets\/images\/layout\/logo-new-2x.png?_=1","width":"500"},"name":"The Future of Customer Engagement and Experience","sameAs":["https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/a-call-for-a-better-experience\/id1479742201","https:\/\/twitter.com\/FutureOfCEC","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/groups\/4844282","https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/feed\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/"},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/02\/20\/how-to-advance-gender-equality-and-diversity\/#Article"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2018","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"02","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/\/02\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"20","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/\/02\/\/20\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Making a mark: How to begin advancing gender equality and diversity","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/02\/20\/how-to-advance-gender-equality-and-diversity\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]