Can we talk about the crush?
Opinion
Fear of speaking your mind is an understandable response to an industry intent on misunderstanding your words. We have to amplify and platform all women, writes Nicola Kemp.
As an industry, we must stop weaponising women’s words against them and crushing their creative ambitions.
Taking it one day at a time.’
In an industry in which it is notoriously difficult for women to play the long game, this recent quip from a sales director sums up the underlying anxiety female leaders face in an unforgiving market. Many women feel as if their careers are on quicksand. As a result, they are increasingly frightened to speak their minds.
In a chaotic environment, when I talk to women on the path to leadership, a singular theme emerges: a relentless pressure to stay in one lane. In a notoriously ruthless employment market, all too many women are silently stepping back from any kind of spotlight.
Far from the much-talked-about ‘quiet quitting’ trend, this decision to endlessly censor themselves assumes that survival comes hand in hand with silence. A growing number of women are shrinking themselves by accepting the myth that there is nothing more dangerous to their career trajectory than their own opinion.
Self-editing in the workplace is nothing new. Yet in an industry in which we continue to treat women as if they have a used-by date, the undeniable truth is that an ever-increasing number of women are putting themselves on mute. Second-guessing what they have to say so much that they simply stop speaking at all. We must not treat this silence as inevitable.
Careers interrupted
We relentlessly judge women not just for what they say, but how they say it and what they look like while they say it. Or even the fact that they say it in the first place.
Yet at the same time, we collectively fail to ask the most important question of all: are we actually committed to setting women up to succeed in the long term? Or are we guilty of consistently overlooking women’s expertise until they stop believing in it themselves?
Research from King’s Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London underlines the scale of the problem. Its research on women in UK media found that men are nearly four times more likely to be quoted as experts in UK media. Women represented less than one-fifth of quoted experts in UK business and finance coverage.
A 2026 national media monitoring report from the University of Worcester found that women accounted for only 36% of sources and subjects in UK news stories. As an industry, we routinely fail to recognise, respect or elevate women’s expertise.
We won’t let women win
We have a long way to go to recognise how difficult we are making it for women to win. Even women at the very top of their game are constantly called on to endlessly prove themselves.
Chelsea captain Millie Bright’s retirement from football is a compelling example of the cost of holding women to an impossible-to-meet standard.
There is no question that Bright gave everything she could on the pitch. One of England’s greatest centre-backs, she built her career on showing up. She is Chelsea’s record appearance maker (314), scoring 19 times on the way to winning all eight of the club’s WSL titles to date. Yet when she withdrew from England’s Euro 2025 squad, the online abuse and questioning of her integrity were swift and brutal.
Her leadership is inspirational and her legacy unquestionable. Yet what must be impossible to ignore is the level of abuse she has had to endure. The cost we expect to pay for success, or any kind of public profile, is simply unacceptable.
When we need women to go further, not just faster, in their careers, we have to call out the brutality and bullying women face on a daily basis.
Don’t be a sponge
To tackle these big issues, we need women to win in the media industry. We need women at the top of our organisations. We need women who will ask difficult questions. Women who will give other women a seat at the table, even when they disagree. Women who will challenge the invisible and ever-rising bar we hold women to. Women who want all women to win.
Yet the burden of speaking up cannot fall solely on women. Fear of speaking your mind is an understandable response to an industry intent on misunderstanding your words.
As an industry, we have to amplify and platform all women. We have to stop setting an impossible bar for female leaders. Expecting women to perform a monstrous level of perfection is not progress.
For the women reading this, doubting themselves, or second-guessing the importance of what they have to say, know that your words have value. Your expertise matters. Don’t be a sponge for others’ bias and bullying behaviour. Don’t doubt the value of your ideas.
Let the noise be noise. Don’t let the reply guys get your last word.
Nicola Kemp has spent over two decades writing about diversity, equality and inclusion in media. She is now editorial director at Creativebrief and writes for The Media Leader each month.