I’ve decided to write another book in 2025. There are a few book ideas swimming around in my head and I’m doing a little research right now to figure out which one to focus on. The current (and leading) idea is about gender equality. It’s a subject I feel can’t wait any longer to be addressed in a more far-reaching way because a recent UN Women’s report says it will take 286 years for women to reach worldwide equality. I believe we can (and must) shorten that…by a lot.
It will take 286 years for women to reach worldwide equality.
UN Women’s Sustainable Development Snapshot, 2022
Why Write About Gender Equality?
Yesterday, I thought a lot about how I would know which book to write. There are the usual things, like what I find in my research and competitive analysis, but the most important indication for me is whether I really like the subject. Is this something that gets me fired up and makes me want to work hour after hour on it? Is this something I feel personally NEEDS to be out in the world? When it comes to gender equality, I feel strongly that the next four years will set us back quite a bit. We need to do something to not only counteract that, but move forward steadily.
I started to read a new book about the women’s suffrage movement today called Why They Marched: Untold Stories of the Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote by Susan Ware. I’ve only read the intro, but I can’t wait to pick it back up and glean all kinds of interesting ideas from it.
I’ve always been someone who is interested in a million different things. And I’ll dabble in one thing today and another tomorrow. I move an inch in a thousand directions instead of a thousand inches in one direction. But, I’ve read enough productivity books and experimented enough with my schedule to know that I need to focus. I need to figure out what the mark is that I want to leave on the world.
What Does Gender Equality Mean to Me?
When it comes to gender equality, it’s not enough that we can work, vote, get no fault divorces, and serve in almost every position on the planet. In order for women (or anyone else) to be first-class citizens we need true equality.
To me, equality means:
- Equal representation in leadership positions (board rooms and governmental bodies)
- Equal pay
- Men doing 50% of the unpaid work at home and in our communities
- Equal representation in the data that we use to make decisions. For instance, medical testing, product testing, etc. This is even more important now, in the age of Artificial Intelligence, where we’re using the data that exists to make arguably even more important decisions.
Technology & Equality
And that brings me to technology. The women who fought for the right to vote didn’t have the internet, social media, or smart phones to help them get and stay connected. I believe we have a leg up today; a gift, really, that allows us to organize and make decisions faster. Technology can have its pros and cons, but I believe that we can use the intersection of technology and our ability to organize to make change happen faster.
And that brings me back to the 286 years it will take for women to reach worldwide equality. I believe we can vastly shorten that timeframe. And I’m about to be very busy figuring out exactly how. I’ve found one book I’m eager to read: Equality Within Our Lifetimes: How Laws & Policies Can Close–and Widen– Gender Gaps in Economies Worldwide by Heymann, Sprague and Raub.
Has anyone else read any great books or papers on this topic? Is anyone else feeling this same need to organize and make change?