Contrary to popular belief, women don’t want to do it all

Opinion

By glorifying the summer juggle, we sidestep the fact that the media industry still spends women’s time like it’s an infinite resource.

When was the last time you gave something your complete, undivided and uninterrupted attention?

While the hustle culture advocates for 5am starts, hyper individualism and endless consumption, the simple truth is the ability to spend all your attention on one single task is out of reach for most women.

At the same time, the media industry continues to perpetuate a toxic myth of selfish women “having it all” while, as organisations, we continue to spend women’s time like it’s water.

In our offices, it is women who disproportionately carry the emotional labour. From running employee resource groups to mentoring junior staff to speaking up against harassment, women are investing their energy in building a better future — energy that we collectively refuse to see as finite.

The media industry is a microcosm of a society that still runs on women’s unpaid labour. Data from the Office for National Statistics suggest women carry out an average of 60% more unpaid work than men. Mothers on maternity leave do the most unpaid work — work that, even today, remains almost entirely wordless.

Making this invisible labour visible is vital in both valuing the immense contribution of women to our industry and holding leaders accountable for policies that continue to stop women from achieving their potential.

Stop glorifying the juggle

In the midst of the summer holidays, this conversation is particularly urgent.

According to recent data from children’s charity Coram, covering the UK’s six-week summer break now costs an average of £1,076 per child, with some regions seeing year-on-year increases of up to 13%.

Summer holiday childcare provision is patchy and the hours often do not match up to a working day.

With media businesses mandating more time in the office and the cost-of-living crisis continuing to bite, it is easy to see why stress levels are rising hand in hand with the temperatures.

Yet collectively we bury our heads in the sand. Ask yourself: when was the last time you gave creating the conditions for women to thrive in your organisation the attention it deserves?

Or are you too busy, too pressured, too endlessly distracted, to recognise that equality is a business imperative?

The commentators lining up to wax lyrical about why it is essential for the industry to stop the AI slop need to ask themselves why they are on mute when it comes to equality.

From unrealistic body standards to the dehumanisation of trans women to everyday sexism to the relentless judgement, the cost of the lack of women in leadership is clear.

Our inability to see the world through a female lens holds the industry back on every level. The price we pay for the steady stream of female talent out of the door is our collective humanity.

The privilege of presenteeism

When society pays such a high cost for the lack of women in leadership, the media industry must urgently address its inability to recognise and respond to the structural issues holding women back.

We have continued to perpetuate a model of leadership rooted in presenteeism.

It’s an approach that not only suffocates women’s creative potential but contributes to a wider industry narrative that continues to cause real-world harm.

This is particularly acute as the UK’s childcare crisis continues to place impossible pressure on parents.

While progressive companies have embraced work-from-anywhere schemes and summer hours, all too many others pretend that the summer chaos facing working parents simply does not exist.

Of course, the industry stands still for no-one. These are tough times. Many of the brightest are facing redundancy. Yet the truth remains that equality is business critical. So why are we content to press pause on progress?

With the end of the summer season on the horizon and back-to-school energy in the air,  imagine what we could achieve if we recognised where we are falling short. What if leaders acknowledged that heavy-handed return-to-office policies bring back a system of presenteeism that suffocates women’s leadership potential? What if we didn’t leave equality to chance?

For all the women who feel there are a hundred tabs open in their brain, remember that doing one thing at a time is more than enough. You are enough.

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.