by Powerbitches founder and CEO, Rachel Hills
As feminist founders, creators, and changemakers, we know that our work is most powerful when it speaks to people whose identities and experience don’t necessarily match our own.
But building companies, organizations, and movements that are truly inclusive and equitable is easier said than done. It’s not just a matter of nixing the all-white panel, asking people their pronouns, or putting pictures of same-sex couples in your marketing materials.
It means taking an honest look at who has decision making power in your organization (even if that organization is just you for now), and whose needs you’re meeting - or not meeting - with the products, projects, and stories you’re putting out into the world. It means reckoning with your own "isms," and having the courage to deal with the biases that show up in your organization head on.
None of this sh** is easy. If it was, you’d see a mass of progressive businesses and non-profits upending structures of white supremacy, homophobia, transphobia, classism, and ableism inside their companies and out. Instead, what we see time and time again are well-intentioned organizations failing to live up to their own marketing - whether in ways that are loud and public, or more quietly, in ways we might only acknowledge to ourselves.
That’s why Powerbitches has teamed up with LondonPlane Advisory’s Michelle Wonsley-Ford and meetinplace for a Masterclass on diversity, equity, and inclusion that seeks to get to the heart of these questions and how we can shift our practices and behavior to make our own organizations more inclusive and equitable.
We’ve called it Your Business Will Be Intersectional Or It Will Be Bullshit in a homage to Flavia Dzodan’s famous 2011 declaration, “my feminism will be intersectional or it will be bullshit.”
This Masterclass is targeted at founders of mission-driven businesses and non-profits large and small, as well as people in leadership positions at businesses and non-profits who want to learn how to create change in their own organizations.
RSVP and secure your ticket here.
And if you’ve been considering joining Powerbitches but have been waiting for the motivation, here’s a little sweetener for you: this masterclass is free for all Powerbitches members.
Whether you’re a member or not, I hope you’ll join us for this important conversation. It’s not a matter of being perfect, but we can do better - and that goes for us at Powerbitches as much as anyone.