#67 — Sarah Nöckel (Femstreet)

Inside The Newsroom

Hello! And welcome to another episode of Inside The Newsroom. We’re in crazy times, so I thought it’d be good to take a break with today’s podcast guest… Sarah Nöckel, founder of Femstreet, a newsletter dedicated to women in tech and venture capital. Femstreet has exploded in popularity and influence since Sarah started it about two years ago, and we dug deep into how she grew her following to more than 7,000 subscribers from nothing, and what influence she’s had in narrowing the inequality gap. On Friday we’ll have an update on the you know what, specifically looking at what each U.S. state has done and is doing to combat the spread. Until then, enjoy some normality and stay safe out there. Enjoy 🤓

Picks of the Week

* Tulsi Gabbard Drops Out — Yes, Tulsi was still in the race until last week, and bizarrely endorsed Joe Biden despite disagreeing with him on almost everything

* Marie Newman — Progressive Marie Newman beat incumbent Democrat Dan Lipinski in Illinois’ 3rd district primary, and is set to join The Squad in the House of Reps

* Olympics Postponed — Japan and the IOC held out as long as possible, but they finally announced the inevitable and moved the Tokyo Olympics to next summer

Sarah 👇

How Sarah Built Femstreet

Sarah launched Femstreet because she couldn’t find a central place for news on women making strides in the technology and venture capital industries. So in September 2017, Sarah published her first article to just a handful of subscribers. More than 100 editions of Femstreet later, Sarah now publishes to more than 7,000 subscribers. While the content is targeted at women in tech and VC, her lessons and experience can be used and applied by anyone anywhere. Four of the biggest lessons Sarah has learned, which I share and couldn’t put better myself, include…

* Niche doesn’t mean small. Like-minded people find each other

* Focus. Depth not breadth

* Genuine personal brand is important

* Create for the best readers, not all the readers

What you can do now: start something. It doesn’t matter what, but with more downtime in these crazy times, just start with the first block, and then add to it every day.

The Gap Is Closing, But Not Fast Enough

Every year the World Economic Forum publishes its Global Gender Gap Report, which covers aspects including Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. I dived into the 2020 edition to see what the current situation is and how large the strides we’re making are. Below is a summary of the main findings…

* Overall global gender parity is at 68.6 percent, up slightly from a year before. That figure is pulled up and down by different countries and subindexes, but overall, gender equality is improving.

* The subindex with the largest disparity is Political Empowerment — the number of women represented in parliaments around the world, followed by Economic Participation and Opportunity — the ability of women to enter the workplace. Educational Attainment and Health and Survival have 96.1 percent and 95.7 percent parity, respectively. The latter two are very positive.

* The number of women in parliament has improved dramatically in recent years, especially in countries such as Latvia, Spain and Thailand. But still only a quarter of the more than 35,000 global parliamentary seats are occupied by women. In some countries, women aren’t represented at all.

* The number of women in senior roles around the world has also increased. Globally, around 36 percent of senior private sector managers and public sector officials are women, a rise of about 2 percent from last year. This metric is also heavily weighted by a handful of countries.

* New problems exist lower down the ladder though. On average, only 55 percent of adult women are in the workforce, compared with 78 percent of men.

* Educational Attainment is another subindex weighted by developed countries in the west. Ten percent of women around the world are still illiterate. Significantly more investment is needed in developing countries.

* Progress is being made, but not fast enough. The overall global gender gap is slated to be closed in 100 years; Political Empowerment will take around 95 years to close; Economic Participation and Opportunity will take 257 years to close. BUT there is better news: Educational Attainment is on track to close over the next 12 years!

* Unsurprisingly, Western Europe has the highest gender parity of any region, followed by North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

* At the current pace, overall gender gaps could be closed in 54 years in Western Europe, 59 years in Latin America and the Caribbean, 71 years in South Asia, and a whopping 151 years in North America.

* The five most improved countries in this year’s report are Ethiopia, Spain, Mali, Albania and Mexico.

* Iceland (God bless you) is once again the most gender-equal country for the 11th time in a row with a disparity of just 12 percent. In second is Norway, followed by Finland and Sweden. Notice anything?

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What Scandanavia Is Doing That Other Countries Are Not

Before we lavish the Nordics too much, we must recognize that many senior positions within corporations and government are still held by old white men. Let me say that all old white men are not evil, but when you have too many of any one group or demographic controlling a system, said system becomes slow-moving and reactive, instead of being progressive and proactive. That said, the likes of Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland are the best countries in the world for gender equality.

In Iceland, women have had the best working conditions of any other country for 11 years in a row now. Part of why comes from the fact that for centuries, women have stayed at home while the men traversed the oceans. As a result, women had to play the role of farmer, hunter, architect, builder and so on. Now that overseas exploration isn’t really a thing, women and their contribution are sewn into the country’s fabric. Similar histories can be told of many countries around the world, but Scandanavia has taken advantage the most and is part of why they are also among the happiest countries in the world.

Serena Williams Gave Birth, Then Lost Her Ranking

Just one recent example of the hardships women have to break through that men don’t involves the greatest tennis to have ever stepped onto the court. In January 2017, Serena Williams left on maternity leave ranked No. 1 in the world, having won the 2017 Australian Open while 20 weeks pregnant. Insane. When she returned to the game at the 2018 French Open, she was suddenly ranked No. 415. The WTA’s maternity leave rules back then meant that Serena lost out on ranking points for the entire time she was out. Serena being Serena used her platform to speak out on the issue and the WTA has since revised its policy to allow new mothers to use their previous ranking at 12 select tournaments within a three-year period.

Now this is obviously the highest-of-profile cases, and most other women don’t have the same power and influence to speak out. While Serena put her career on hold to give birth, the same can’t be said for millions of other women across the globe. As a result, fertility rates today are among the lowest ever recorded.

Fertility Rates Have Plummeted, Everywhere

More and more women are choosing to go in the opposite direction to Serena, saying no to giving birth full stop. In 1960, the average women had five children (holy mackerel!), but that figure has been halved as of 2017, according to data from the World Bank. Why? Because women are finally being allowed to make decisions for themselves, and the increasing financial requirements of raising a child has become too much for many women and couples. However, there is still wild variation between different regions.

What are Governments Doing to Reduce Gap?

Consultancy firm McKinsey & Company identified six ways governments can intervene and speed up the closing of the gap: Laws, policies, and regulation; financial incentives and support; technology and infrastructure; creation of economic opportunity; capability building; and advocacy and shaping attitudes. Governments have the power, the money and the stakeholders to put all of these into action, but put simply, not enough are doing enough about it.

Related Podcasts

#55 — Lindsay Gibbs (Power Plays newsletter) on why U.S. Soccer is denying the USWNT equal pay

#46 — Christine Brennan (USA Today, CNN, PBS) on the history of women in sports

This week…

Look out for a newsletter on Friday looking at what each U.S. state is doing to combat the spread of the virus, including confirmed cases and deaths.

… next week

We’ll have Mckayla Wilkes, progressive Democrat from Maryland, to talk about her race with house majority leader and one of the most powerful Democrats in the country Steny Hoyer, and the need for Medicare For All and Universal Basic Income.

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