Working Together: When Women Speak, Do Men Listen? – Matthew Taylor, James Max, Hamish Forsyth, Jane Gunn FRSA, Judith Perle FRSA, Deborah Wharton FRSA
On 8th March 2011, to coincide with the centenary of Women’s International Day I chaired the second in a series of speaking events organised by the RSA Women Speaker Network in association with the English-Speaking Union at their Dartmouth House Headquarters in Soho, London.
Like the launch event at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers on November 8th 2010 it was a full house with a great cast of speakers, not just on the panel but also as part of the floor.
The first two topics were designed purely to raise the issue of women speakers by focusing directly on the subject. Why are women often limited to just speaking to other women when the big, bad world and even beyond could profit from our intuitive voice and often pragmatic opinions? Is this a situation we bring on ourselves, in which case we are our own worst enemies, or visited upon us? Obviously there are times when women addressing other women are relevant, but sometimes it limits the audience or gives the impression that women-only groups are in some way second rate. But, as so many raise, how about the apparent gender imbalance of mixed speaking? Is this an evil male conspiracy to maintain control of the floor or women’s lack of interest and know-how in promoting their expertise?
The Speaker Network has already thrown up by way of our events and meetings some interesting observations for me at least. Do women talk too much or too little? Well, it seems that while the obvious first answer from a female-base diverse group of senior women is `too little’, there’s also emerge another side to the conversation that many women agree on.
Speaking out when it comes to women’s input seems to depend much on the format. Given a relaxed environment, such as a cabaret setting, they will definitely get their views across. Not so much with the lecture theatre setup. (Some very interesting feedback on this has come from University students and professors, in particular). However, with the majority of conferences and major speaking events set out in theatre or classroom style that is a challenge which has yet to be addressed.
But the major finding of debate number one was that, whatever the format—boardroom or bench—in a large number of industries (particularly traditionally male fields such as engineering, construction, science and even academia) women are grossly under-represented as chairs or panelists. That, of course is not inspirational to young women who could be recruited into these fields if there was more female visibility in terms of `role model’ speakers.
In a similar way debate 2 was illuminating. Apparently men and women speak and listen for different purposes. That aside, our speakers quashed myths like `women speak more than men’ and even the ‘woman gossip’ one. To catch a flavour of the evening you can watch the clip below.
What next? Several members of the network are developing a range of different and original initiatives around the mission statement `to raise women’s profile in society by greater involvement in public speaking’. If you are an RSA fellow and wish to be involved or grow this network please join in our LinkedIn group and/or Ning (or both) where we will post details and initiate discussions.
Our public events to date have been open to both men and women either from the RSA or beyond and are advertised in the RSA Fellowship newsletter.
