46: Where are all the female experts? Why women account for less than 24% of news sources and make up just a third of all paid speakers, with behavioural scientist Penny Locaso.
Media MagnetShow Notes
I'll be honest, when I first started Nable My Business - I had quite a narrow-minded, short term view of what my business would do. What it's purpose would be.
I naively thought I was helping women-led businesses to grow leveraging the media and PR. Just like I had done for myself using my journalist skills from my first career in TV News to grow my first bricks and mortar business to 7 figures in the early days of my entrepreneurial journey.
But coming up to my 3rd anniversary as a Media and PR Coach to women in business it's becoming glaringly obvious to me that there's a whole lot more going on here than just encouraging women to promote their business or their brand in the public domain.
Women (in my experience Australian women) have a massive problem selling themselves, they battle with dark thoughts of what others will think of them, they feel ill at the thought of being called an expert, have crazy amounts of Imposter Syndrome at every turn (even when they're seriously accomplished) and compare themselves constantly to those around them (normally other women).
This is a repeat theme of working with women of all different cultures, business sizes and levels of experience and trying to help them share their stories, their opinions and build their reputation and authority in traditional media.
So, when I learned about an in depth study written by Australian behavioural scientist, Penny Locaso (ironically a referral from a student inside my MMA course) I couldn't get my hands on that research fast enough.
As well as being a behavioural scientist, Penny is an impact expert and mentor, international speaker, published author, budding psychologist and trauma therapist, nature lover, yogi and proud single mum.
And now, here she is on the podcast, just a few weeks later. And, not a moment too soon, because the findings of her white paper, Hidden Figures - where are all the female experts?...are mind-blowing.
Did you know that only 24% of news sources globally are women (World Economic Forum, 2020) and just 31% of paid speakers are female voices (Forbes, 2023) and At the current rate of change, the World Economic Forum (2024) predicts that it will take another 131 years to reach gender parity.
In this fascinating episode of the podcast we discuss, not just the incredible results of Penny's white paper, but why women constantly self-deprecate, why they feel so weird about being considered an 'expert' in their field, and, more importantly, why it's up to each and every one of us to do our part to overcome generations of being 'good girls' and disrupt the status quo if we're to see any sort of significant change to these shocking figures in our lifetime.
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