“How does the media do women entrepreneurs a disservice?”
This is a question I was asked recently on a podcast interview with Mike Michalowicz, an author, speaker and business expert I both follow and recommend. Side note: His book The Pumpkin Plan is my all time favorite. Plus, he’s a Hokie. So, you know… there’s that.
Anyway, you can listen to the podcast here, but I essentially stuck ONLY to the two primary issues I have with magazine covers, and how they portray woman entrepreneurs:
- They tend to ONLY feature “famous” women; and
- These women are nearly always portrayed in masculine clothing and in masculine poses. Exhibit 1:
If I were expanding the conversation to include how the media portrays women in GENERAL, i’d have to include Exhibit 2, below.
Notice successful women on the covers of magazines are either fully clothed, masculinely posed and buttoned up… OR they are nearly naked. The message — at least at first pass — being sent by the media is that there are PRECISELY two ways to be successful:
- dial UP your masculinity, OR
- show up nearly naked.
In response to the media, I would like to give you a REAL look at what success looks like, by highlighting the women entrepreneurs within the walls of Women Who WOW. We are job creators, industry disruptors, bad ass women who are NOT afraid to show up unapologetically ourselves. We are therapists, attorneys, financial advisors, coaches, veterinarians and real estate professionals. We are surgeons, PR agents, publishers and speakers. And how we look, how we dress… is as diverse as who we are. This is — of course — as it should be.
Look at the DIVERSITY inherent in OUR success “uniforms” below… and let’s start looking to the national media to follow suit and begin PRESENTING the true diversity of success.
Mike and team, I had so much fun on your podcast and can’t wait to hear more about ProfitCon 2020!!
