#HearHerVoice Event

WISH #HearHerVoice Event 

This week Tracey McEachran kicked off our first #HearHerVoice Event where we are seeking to encourage more women to speak up and be heard. 

Hosted by WISH's President Tracey McEachran we listened to guest speaker Somayeh Tosi's story on being an Iranian woman and making her voice heard.

A quote from the Tokyo Olympics chief: "with a lot of women, the board meetings take so much time."

Data: shows it's usually men who talk more.

(1) Men tend to talk more in meetings—even if more women are there

(2) Power leads men but not women to talk more

(3) Men interrupt more intrusively

(4) Women are 2.5 times less likely to ask a question 

Through Tracey's campaign as President of WISH we are seeking to raise awareness to the fact that women's voices are heard less often than their male counterparts. At WISH we want to empower and encourage women to speak up and be heard. This was our first event that focused on our #HearHerVoice campaign.

We had a wonderful and inspiring speaker to begin the session by telling her compelling story. We were then put into breakout rooms with some of the wonderful coaches that have a connection to WISH.  Attendees were able to share their experience and their limiting beliefs that hold them back. Our coaches were there to reframe their thoughts into something positive that help them have their voice heard, at conferences and in meetings.  

We had some fantastic feedback from this event:

The attendees were asked what they would take away from the event and this is what they said...

"Believe in your own voice, don't be afraid."

"Have confidence in yourself. Not everything has to be perfect."

"There is no such thing as a stupid question. Someone else will be really glad that you asked the question - as will the speaker."

"Self limiting beliefs are not facts."

"Be confident, your contribution is so important."

"I just wanted to let you know that following the #HearHerVoice session this week, I was at a safeguarding network conference today. And I thought to myself do you know what, I'm going to ask a question, make an observation which I did throughout the event. A bit worried about it but
a) the chair said at the beginning 'no question is a stupid question' which really helped to set the tone and
b) my observation/suggestion was taken onboard and is being taken forward and the question I asked for got a huge response and was the only one identified in the day as being a 'really great question.'
I really don't think I would have the confidence had I not attended the WISH event and the idea of having small break outs with a coach was really helpful. So once again, thank you."

Thanks to all our coaches for helping us start this journey to make women's voices be heard. #HearHerVoice

Watch the recording here... https://youtu.be/3iXBWg6go5E

Download here the 'Top tips to encourage diversity of voice at conferences'