Why does equality feel more distant?

I’ve been attending a lot of events that have been intended to forward the cause of female empowerment. During these events, I’ve seen a couple of worrying trends that are coming mostly from the younger generation of women.

“I’m not a feminist”. That is a huge worry.

When I hear these words coming from the mouths of women, it blows my mind. What has this word come to mean? We need remove the baggage that this word is clearly carrying, through education. Feminism is simply a belief that men and women are equal. Feminism is not a realm only for women. Justin Trudeau famously said he was a feminist and he’s not the only man who has been vocal about the word. So why is there even one woman still balking at it?

The other worry is that there are women who are still against quotas. This is somewhat more understandable as it comes from a place of confidence. I get it. Why should women get a job just because of a quota? We have smart, capable women who are often the best candidate for a position .. can’t they just get the job based on merit? The reality is that we’ve always had smart, capable women and we’re still under-represented in the workforce. It doesn’t matter how you get your job … what matters is how you do the job when you get it.

We’ve been talking about this for too long … let’s stop talking and started putting actions in place that will help create the change we need. Because at the end of the day, it’s better for business and it’s better for the world if women are given the opportunity to succeed. 

Adrianne Nixon is an expert in diversity in the business world. Adrianne is presenting at The Status Quota - Is there Merit in Merit? on Sunday 9 June as part of Vivid Ideas.