4 Brands Supporting Women and Non-binary People 365 Days of the Year
Article Highlights
- LinkedIn x Women’s Euros 2022
- Bauer Media - We Need To Talk About Women’s Safety campaign
- Urban Angels
- Gender Pay Gap Bot
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Last week, England’s Lionesses celebrated a triumphant win at the Women’s Euros 2022, and we couldn’t be more excited! The impact that this win will have on young people (particularly women) will be incredible, and to celebrate, we wanted to take a look at the brands that are supporting and platforming both women and non-binary people 365 days of the year.
Today we’re shining the spotlight on four great brands/campaigns that prioritise representation, equality and safety for women and non-binary people all year round and not just for one day (we’re looking at you, ‘slacktivists’). Check out our favourites below.
LinkedIn x Women’s Euros 2022
News in on a 2022 partnership that we never saw coming but absolutely love: LinkedIn was announced as an official sponsor of the UEFA Women’s Euros this year. The social media platform has also partnered with International Women’s Day in a ‘two-pronged thrust to ‘make work work for women’’.
LinkedIn took an educational stance, promoting female footballers to take part in the programme as a way of stimulating ‘conversations around empowerment, leadership, wellbeing and diversity.’ The company also spotlighted female trailblazers and shared their inspirational and amazing stories.
On the partnership, Ngaire Moys from LinkedIn said: “UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 is set to be a landmark event that will provide professional female footballers with a platform to showcase their remarkable talents and achievements – inspiring others to do the same.”
As we said, this is a partnership that we never saw coming, but we love it! And with 41% of young people admitting to using LinkedIn when trying to find a job (Student Beans user survey 2022) combined with the long-lasting impact that this historic win is set to have, this seems like the perfect way to reach Gen Z with inspirational messages of young and successful women.
Bauer Media – We Need To Talk About Women’s Safety campaign
Bauer Media are the UK’s No. 1 publisher and Europe’s leading digital commercial broadcaster, reaching over 25 million consumers in the UK through their multiple channels and platforms. In other words – they’re big. And Bauer has recently been using its impressive platforms to reach out to thousands of people about a number of important issues, one of which focuses on women’s safety.
The We Need To Talk About Women’s Safety campaign was launched in the wake of Sarah Everard’s murder in 2021, and featured a live panel discussion in in which women shared their experiences of assault, threat or harassment, men shared their allyship and audiences were encouraged to understand the issue at further and how best to demand change.
The show featured special guests from across the media, government and other organisations, including #ReclaimTheseStreets’ Jamie Klingler, Femicide Census’ Karen Ingala Smith and Jess Phillips MP, as well as famous faces such as Fleur East and Tyler West. The panel was hosted by Bauer’s Chief Content Officer Lucie Cave. This insightful, inspiring and moving piece of work really encouraged conversation around the topic of women and safety and took a number of important steps in the fight towards change.
The We Need To Take About Women’s Safety campaign is a fantastic example of how brands can get involved with important (and at times sensitive) topics. By investing time, money and resources into this, Bauer encouraged conversation and education and provided an enormous platform for the voices that need to be heard.
We’re excited to share with you that Lucie Cave will be joining Voxburner for April’s exclusive Voxburner+ deep dive, where we’ll be talking about Diversity and Inclusion. More information is available at the end of this post.
Urban Angels
Urban Angels are a student-led community of young people across the UK who are dedicated to supporting women and non-binary people and fighting for their safety. This community works all year round to provide safe spaces on their Instagram and Facebook pages and offer solidarity and support. According to one of their social media pages, their aim is to ‘change the narrative around gendered violence and make real, lasting cultural change.’
And this cause isn’t exclusive to these communities. According to a user survey by our sister company Student Beans, 66% of young people think transphobia and gender identity discrimination affects the safety of students at their place of education
By sharing alerts of any reported dangerous, suspicious or uncomfortable situations as well as posting information on upcoming protests/boycotts and helping one another to generate ideas to make their cities safer, Urban Angels is a brilliant example of Gen Zers taking the initiative and dedicating time and resource towards a cause they truly care about. It’s important to note that Urban Angels also have a dedicated team of volunteer fact-checkers who go through all posts prior to sharing, making them a reliable and trusted source amongst young people.
Rachel Thomsen, Head Angel at Urban Angels, told us: “Urban Angels, a community to support the safety of those who identify as women and non-binary people, is working across multiple cities to listen, support and act. We prioritise peer support by listening to our member’s concerns and creating areas of solidarity, using their suggestions to formulate plans to extend these spaces into our nightlife.”
Gender Pay Gap Bot
And last but by no means least is the once-anonymous Twitter account, Gender Pay Gap Bot. International Women’s Day saw a number of companies tweeting about their female employers and the great work they do as brands, but this account whipped up a storm online this year by calling them out. And yes, we know this isn’t strictly a brand, but it’s definitely an account that’s worth taking note of!
Francesca Lawson and her partner Ali Fensome have since been revealed as the individuals behind the account, and as Francesca wrote in her ‘reveal’ tweet, “We hope it’s sent a signal to employers that vague messages of ‘empowerment’ aren’t good enough!’.
In this organisation, women's median hourly pay is 59% lower than men's. https://t.co/9y8o6BhzxG
— Gender Pay Gap Bot (@PayGapApp) March 11, 2022
In response to the tweets, many of the criticised brands and companies took the decision to delete their tweets or retweet them without the #IWD22 hashtag. The result? Someone else got involved, keeping an amusing thread running calling out all of the companies that had retaliated in this way.
Speaking on why they decided to start the Gender Pay Gap Bot, Francesca said: “By creating the bot we have been able to present the facts in a very neutral tone. We are taking a lot of the emotion out of it by simply pushing the reality and letting people make their own decisions. Many have been surprised to see just how many companies still have significant gender pay gaps.”
https://twitter.com/oldenoughtosay/status/1501161363263078401?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1501161363263078401%7Ctwgr%5E868994b355c6b6bbcf1c6ce6cff8a511e33a202a%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.voxburner.com%2Fblog-source%2F2022%2F3%2F11%2F4-brands-supporting-women-and-non-binary-people-365-days-of-the-year
Many of the tweets, and the account in general, went viral on Twitter, with an abundance of companies being called out for their actions (or lack of). This is just proof that companies have nowhere to hide, and that the infamous ‘slacktivism’ will always be called out. Whether it’s a Gen Zer or a millennial, someone, somewhere, will call you out; after all, young people want and expect equality and representation in the workplace and across their daily lives (with 87% of Gen Zers saying they’d actively support a brand if they felt represented in their advertising (Youth Trends Report US 2021)).
The lesson? Before you promote anything externally, make sure your internal values and actions align with it.
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[Cover image 📷: @uefawomenseuro on Instagram]
