Project title: How does she do it all?
Emergent practice: Social action
The issue: There are few too women in top leadership positions around the world even after a century later when suffragettes risked their lives to advocate for a society where men and women are treated as equals. This is due to several reasons embedded in society and culture most of which are implicit that needs to change, primarily the idea that a woman’s roles is the main caretaker while the man’s role is the breadwinner. It is breaking such stereotypes and negative attitudes that is at the core of this issue.
The possible change: Shift attitudes and perceptions of men so that they begin support women at work and home and also to empower women to speak up and lead without fear or guilt that society instills on women who should primarily be the main caregiver.
Design action: To empower and educate men and women on how far behind women are globally in the workforce in reaching leadership positions and inform them of practical and real solutions to overcome this through internalising more productive attitudes to start the revolution as Sandberg puts it.
Brief:
To realise this proposition I will use a combination of video and copywriting to convey an advertisement that educates whilst inspires men and women to shift their attitudes and seek out change in this issue. I will draw upon personal messages from real life stories such as Sheryl Sandberg and Anne-Marie Slaughter, powerful working women and mothers, to ultimately realise the main message that a stay-at-home dad should be equally valued as a women CEO and vice versa, thus normalising perceptions of gender roles at work and home which will help promote the idea that women should be ambitions while men should play a more equal role at home. I will also incorporate voiceover of famous quotes by famous women and men that help distill this issue to its core and allow immediate education and engagement from the viewer. I will also consider using illustration and motion to tell this story in a more fluid and fluent way for a large audience that includes men and women of ages 13 and over as it is imperative that even young boys and girls learn early on that the stereotypes of men and women are inaccurate and disempowering for both genders.
By Koshila Perera
tbnc 