The Fix

Psychological safety, a term coined and defined by Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, people feel psychologically safe at work when they believe that they can be themselves at work and they won't be punished or humiliated for sharing their identity,  speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes. In short, it is how comfortable individuals are with being themselves, taking risks and being vulnerable with their team. Having a diverse workforce most certainly does not guarantee that everyone in your organization feel comfortable or valued for who they are.  One of the quickest ways to erode psychological safety is microagressions, which are the indirect or unintentional expressions of racism, sexism, ageism, or ableism. Like asking to touch a Black colleagues hair, pushing a persons wheelchair without asking or telling women to smile. These are all forms of discrimination that come out in seemingly innocuous comments by people who might be completely unaware.  It is not the one off comment that has the greatest impact, rather it is the compounded effect day in and day out of working in an environment where you have to be on alert for where the next comment might be coming from. This has the greatest detrimental impact on a persons mental and emotional wellbeing because it sends the message that they do not belong.  Given the widespread nature of microagressions, on today's episode Heather Younger, international speaker, consultant, adjunct organizational leadership professor and author of The Art of Caring Leadership shares how we can manage microagressions when they happen and build a workplace where people can be themselves. 

Did you know that in the United States in 2020 over 2 million women left the workforce, and in December 140,000 jobs were lost and every one of those was to a woman. This is an issue which disproportionately impacts Black and Latina women, who often work in roles that lack paid sick leave and the ability to work from home. As covid19 hit, mothers were forced to stay at home to care for their children.  According to UN Women, the global organisation responsible for advancing gender equality, before the crisis started, women did nearly 3 times as much unpaid care and domestic work as men. Social distancing measures, school closures and overburdened health systems have put an increased demand on women and girls to cater to the basic survival needs of the family and care for the sick and the elderly. Emerging evidence from UN Women’s rapid gender assessment surveys demonstrates that the disproportionate share of unpaid care work is still falling on women’s shoulders during the pandemic; in fact, they report an increase in unpaid care, often while managing paid work.  This is a global issue.  In rural contexts, women are generally responsible for gathering water and firewood. This constrains their ability to carry out paid work, particularly when jobs cannot be carried out remotely. In urban areas, women are having to care for children at home while holding down a full time remote job. While men have spent more time at home, and in some cases cared for their children or dependents too, women are still undertaking the majority of domestic duties at home.  Tina Tchen, the president and CEO of TIME’S UP Now and the TIME’S UP Foundation, joins us to share why care can’t wait. Tina is a former assistant to President Barack Obama, executive director of the White House Council on Women and Girls, and chief of staff to First Lady Michelle Obama. Tina has worked to advance gender equality, particularly for working women. Here Tina shares how the care crisis is playing out in the United States.

The social model of disability, which is a way of viewing the world developed by people with different mental and physical abilities, is the idea that society disables physically impaired people by assuming everyone experiences life in the same way. By not accounting for people’s differences, one of which is physical impairments,  we inadvertently exclude people from fully participating in day to day activities.  This can include structural barriers, like not having access to handicap accessible toilets, or social barriers, like holding negative attitudes and behaviors toward people with impairments.  When it comes to disability rights, the shift that each of us can make is from viewing people as disabled by their differences to being disabled by the barriers they encounter in society. By viewing disability in this way, we can begin to tackle ableism and start to identify all the barriers that prevent people with impairments from having equal opportunities in life.  Over 50 million Americans live with disabilities, and the disability rights movement is focused on securing equal rights and equal opportunities for people with different physical and mental abilities.  In today's episode we are joined by Kathy Martinez, an internationally recognized disability rights leader and the President and CEO of Disability Rights Advocates, a United States nonprofit legal center that works to advance disability rights. Kathy is the former SVP, Head of Disability and Accessibility Strategy for Wells Fargo. She was born blind along with her sister, and has been an advocate for people with disabilities for most of her career.   Along with Kathy, we unpack how the disability rights movement is working to remove the institutional, physical, and societal barriers people with disabilities face. We will also share specific actions each of us can take to ensure that we create a society where people with disabilities are free to live their lives like anyone else.   

Did you know that according to UNICEF, babies as young as 6 months old notice physical differences including skin color, and studies show that by the age of 5 children treat people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds differently, favoring some over others. Inequality is everywhere, there is simply no way to shield children from it. So what can you do? Arm your children with awareness. Ignoring inequality doesn't protect your children from it. When kids are exposed to bias, discrimination and inequality without understanding what is happening, they can feel isolated, lost and unsafe, which negatively impacts their confidence, development and emotional well being.  To arm your children with awareness and understanding of inequality requires getting comfortable talking about difficult topics, like ableism, sexims, racism and classism. The earlier parents start having these discussions the more effective their children will be in dealing with the challenges of inequality that they encounter every day.  In todays episode we are joined by Mallika Chopra, daughter of the well known thought leader, Deepack Chopra. Mallika is a mother, author and public speaker. She has written a series of 'Just Be' books for children to help them tackle difficult topics like body positivity, diversity and inclusion. These include Just Breathe, Just Feel, and Just Be You. Here, she discusses how to arm your children with awareness, and why this is critical to helping the next generation navigate and overcome the inequality that exists in everyday life.

Global Pride Day is June 27th  a day chosen for people to be proud of who they love irrespective of their sexual orientation or gender. It is not just a celebration of love and acceptance, it is also a day to recognize how far we have come in celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community and how far we still have to go to ensure equality, equity and inclusion of its members.  In the United States being homosexual was considered a mental illness in the 1960’s and at the same time in the United Kingdom it was considered a crime to be gay.  But towards the end of the 60’s with events like the Stonewall riots, the fight against homophobia and the fight for equality prevailed. On todays episode we will celebrate these achievements and unpack what more we need to do. Joining us is André Thomas, NYC Pride Co-Chair who will detail the theme for this years pride month and the challenges that lie ahead. 

According to a report by the American census, despite making up nearly half of the U.S. workforce, women are still vastly underrepresented in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workforce. Women made gains from 8% of STEM workers in 1970 to 27% in 2019  but men still dominated the field. Men made up 52% of all U.S. workers but 73% of all STEM workers. Given the technological advancements with things like AI, robotics, nanotechnology and the internet of things, STEM occupations are expected to increase over the next ten years however the gender gap in STEM persists.  According to the non-profit consulting firm Catalyst, the gap in STEM begins in  education and is fuelled by gender stereotypes and expectations regarding “women’s work.” In today’s episode I speak to Alisha Arora, a 14 year old young woman, who is on a mission to leverage exponential technology to solve some of the world’s largest problems. Alisha is an advocate and activator for mental health, and is currently researching at MIT’s AI lab to diagnose and prevent suicide with machine learning. Alisha represents the future of STEM and so today in this inspiring episode Alisha will share her work, ambitions, and experiences working in STEM. 

In January this year, the government in the United Kingdom, released a stay at home Covid 19 advert, that had illustrations of women undertaking a range of domestic responsibilities, like ironing, homeschooling and cleaning while the one male featured in the advert is sat on the couch. They were forced to withdraw the advert for it’s sexist depictions of women. Sexism in advertising is an issue that has been around as long as the advertising industry has. Organisations like the Advertising Standards Authority in the United Kingdom are tasked with spotting and removing sexist adverts. But often by this point it is too late, the message is already out there and the damage is already done. To combat sexism in advertising we need to arm ourselves with the awareness to spot adverts that reinforce negative stereotypes, across all areas of difference. On today’s episode Tim Parkin, global brand marketing expert, author and speaker, will be joining us on the show to discuss why in 2020 there is still such widespread sexism in advertising and what we can do to tackle this issue. 

Mallory Weggemann has proved to be one of the most inspirational figures in the sport of swimming. It isn’t because of her achievements in the sport, which are incredibly impressive but rather it is because of how she has fought back after tragedy. She is a Paralympic Gold-Medalist, 15-Time World Champion Swimmer, Author of the book Limitless and founder of social impact agency, TFA Group. Mallory has broken 34 American Records, 15 World Records, becoming a twelve time World Champion and became a two Paralympic Medalist at the London 2012 Games. She is now  training for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games. Here, Mallory shares her inspiring journey in overcoming tragedy and how she became limitless. 

Transgender and gender-nonconforming people face risks that make them particularly vulnerable to homicide. Some experience bias explicitly because of their gender identity. For others, their identity makes them more likely to experience other risk factors, such as unemployment or homelessness, experts say. The risks are compounded for trans women of color, especially Black women, who face the additional burden of racism. Last year was the deadliest one on record for transgender Americans, with Black transgender women accounting for two-thirds of total recorded deaths since 2013, according to the Human Rights Campaign. While President Joe Biden signed an executive action affirming that LGBTQ Americans would be protected against discrimination in education, employment, housing, and other fundamental aspects of life in America, there is still along way to go to tackle violence against the trans community.

In the Great Recession, men lost twice as many jobs as women. But from February to May, in the united states 11.5 million women lost their jobs compared with 9 million men because of business closures intended to stop the spread of Covid-19. By the end of April, women's job losses had erased a decade of employment gains. In the 2020 recession, job losses are much higher for women. At its peak, women's unemployment had risen by 2.9 percentage points more than men's unemployment. We spoke with Blessing Adesiyan the Founder & CEO of Mother Honestly, a global community for working mothers about the impact of the current shecession. Blessing shares her research that her organization has undertaken to better understand the impact of the economic downturn on working mother and importantly what we can do to tackle this issue.