business

On Tuesday evening, I went along to a General Assembly event held at work.life, a workspace in Camden. You can join them for £3.50 an hour with free coffee and bagels and ‘crazy-fast ninja Wi-Fi’. This free event was The Future of Work for Women, aptly titled for International Women’s Day. I found the event through the Blooming Founders newsletter, which is an amazing resource you should definitely sign up to!

There was a full house, mostly women with a few men dotted around, as we began with a presentation by Marcie MacLellan, founder of Incontext Productions. Marcie has twenty years’ experience in advertising and is now Head of Content & Productions at Incontext.

Marcie gave us a lightning talk through advertising ethics and the portrayal of women in the media. She used several ads to show how sexism has become normalised through imagery and said women are often underrepresented in media, both men and women are portrayed stereotypically and advertising can normalise violence. Marcie referenced the lack of female film producers when she argued that what happens behind the scenes shapes what happens on screen. Marcie said change needs to happen in advertising because women make or influence 85% of purchasing decisions. Wow. Marcie ended on a positive note, saying that ads are no longer relying as much on sexism. The Glass Lions celebrate ads that avoid gender stereotypes.

‘women make or influence 85% of purchasing decisions’

Marcie mentioned the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and Laura Jordan Bambach as founder of She Says, a global creative network for women in the creative sector.

A panel discussion followed, with panellists Marcie Maclellan (@marciemaclellan), Roberta Lucca (@olicca), Natasha Hussein (@NatashaJH100) and Megan Thomas (@TinieLizzie). Lora Schellenberg chaired the panel. Roberta Lucca has been a computer scientist, marketer and entrepreneur. She began Bossa Studios, a video game company, and Wonderluk, a 3D printing platform. Roberta is passionate about helping women ‘to get hired, empowered and to participate’. Roberta said becoming an entrepreneur means she works all the time, but has a sense of fulfilment in creating something she’s very attached to.

‘get hired, empowered and to participate’

Natasha Hussein wrote The Fulfilment Manifesto and took part in The Startup Institute programme, before co-founding The Startup Magazine where she is now Editor. Natasha said sales are important, no matter which direction you take in your career.

Megan Thomas worked for Sky and a cultural agency, before co-founding PR agency, Full Fat. Megan also founded Flock, with a mission to scale start-ups through collaboration, and Power Diva, dedicated to the mutual empowerment of women in business.

All four panellists offered some great insights based on their own experiences. Natasha said when starting a business, it’s important to be emotionally honest with people in your life, because it is difficult to foster empathy if you’re not. Megan said Flock has just begun to involve men in its events, because they realised they were shooting themselves in the foot by starting as women only. Marcie said you have to ask for what you want.

‘you have to ask for what you want’

Megan said that when she was younger, she felt trapped as she thought she had to choose between a career and a family but now she’s realised you don’t have to choose. Megan said ‘life is never going to look like what you think it will look like’ and ‘gender is a conversation we need to be having all the time’. Natasha said that from a young age, we acknowledge which behaviours are rewarded and we strive to behave in that way, even though these are gendered behaviours.

‘life is never going to look like what you think it will look like’

Megan said it’s important to listen to the people in your company and ask what they need, irrespective of their gender. Flexibility in the workplace leads to better working practices and happy people.

Lots of great questions followed from the audience, possibly fuelled by the free drinks but also enthusiasm. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening and left feeling incredibly positive about the community of female entrepreneurs in London, having chatted to members of the crowd. I will definitely be attending more events like this.

The next General Assembly event at work.life will be on How to Kickstart your Freelance Career on 27 April. General Assembly are welcoming any ideas for events around the future of education, digital nomads and the future of work, so get in touch!

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