Documentary Pick: Miss Representation

Miss Represention is a very thought provoking documentary about the media's representation of women, women in influential positions and the impact of one on the other.

3 things particularly hit me:

• "The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any" - Alice Walker

• The media has a massive responsibility as they hugely shape public opinion.  The average person consumes ~10 hours of media a day (including TV, magazines and online sources).

• Women are under-represented in news reports, objectified in film, music and magazines and undermined.

Definitely worth a watch - what is even more shocking about the representation of women in the media, is how society, and particularly women, are seemly either not aware of the statistics or simply not outraged by this like we should be.

In particular, if you are a father, husband, brother please watch this.  Women alone will not be able to achieve the equality that is not only fair but beneficial to our society (just google the business case for diversity - this really needs a blog of its own...).

"You can't be just a little bit equal" - Tessa Jowell

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Links to check out:

http://www.seejane.org/index.php

http://therepresentationproject.org/

Lean In - Sheryl Sandberg (Part I)

I am part way through reading Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In - it will no doubt doubt form part of a later blog entry as a "Book Pick" but for now I just want to note down some of the things that have stuck with me so far:

• Rather than telling an organisation what your skills are and why they should hire you, try asking "what is your biggest problem and how can I help you solve it".

• She says "as sappy as it sounds I hoped to change the world".  This is exactly how I feel, and I think it is a very positive motivator in my life.   It drives me, energises me and keeps me believing that 1 person can have a big impact.  Naive, yes but definitely very positive.

• Never ask "will you be my mentor" as this is awkward and the mentor relationship needs to be natural.  Instead be prepared, ask good questions (ie not things you could google) and follow up afterwards to tell the person how their advice impacted you.  Something I found interesting was her thoughts on who she likes to mentor, people she thinks have potential and people who she thinks she could offer a lot to in terms of advice.