Catalyst celebrates International Women's Day
"Words are a powerful thing and can be a barrier to women's advancement. It's time for action this International Women's Day," says Lorraine Hariton, President and CEO of Catalyst.
Catalyst is celebrating International Women's Day (IWD) 2020 with a reboot of its successful #BiasCorrect campaign to interrupt unconscious bias by highlighting the power of words used to describe women in the workplace. Building on its 2019 IWD #BiasCorrect campaign success – which featured images of women leaders and influencers like Hillary Clinton and Sheryl Sandberg sharing biased words used to describe them in the workplace – this year’s campaign has expanded to include men. The goal is to demonstrate that women and men with the same talents and skills often are described in very different ways, creating barriers that can adversely impact women’s advancement.
A campaign to challenge bias
“The response to last year’s #BiasCorrect campaign confirmed that many people are unaware of the impact of unconscious gender bias in the workplace. Therefore, we knew it was important to continue to educate everyone about how language affects inclusion,” said Ms. Hariton.
“We know the problem isn’t fixed, and we’re engaging men as gender partners in our 2020 #BiasCorrect campaign to interrupt bias and help women advance.”
This year’s #BiasCorrect landing page features video testimonials from leaders and influencers who have faced gender bias; customizable social media posts for download; and information on how individuals and companies can combat unconscious bias, including a photo uploader enabling men and women to add their own #BiasCorrect words, now available in English, French, German, Spanish, and Japanese.
The #BiasCorrect Slack plugin tool is also available in English, French, German, and Spanish. It tags unconscious bias in real-time conversations on the Slack chat platform, identifying words that create harmful gender stereotypes by suggesting alternatives, such as “passionate” to replace “emotional” and “boss” to replace “bossy.” It is also available as an open-source code and can be adapted for other instant-messaging platforms.
About Catalyst
Catalyst is a global nonprofit working with some of the world's most powerful CEOs and leading companies to help build workplaces that work for women. Founded in 1962, Catalyst drives change with pioneering research, practical tools, and proven solutions to accelerate and advance women into leadership - because progress for women is progress for everyone.
Catalyst has been an International Women's Day Charity of Choice since 2016.