Tricia Driver’s Post

Another poem from my gorgeous Fairy Goddaughter - Jenna.... MASCARA WARNING for all of you

Today seems like an appropriate day to reshare this amazing poem, written by member of the A New Normal Ltd family - Kate Cahn's gorgeous daughter (my fairy goddaughter), Jenna... Our Gigi shared this in #NeurodiversityCelebrationWeek, and I want to share it again today with love, celebration and joy for all my wonderful #neurodivergent friends and family members - unique and beautiful souls who I am VERY happy to have in my life. #JennaForPoetLaureate

YES Max Siegel ❤️

Who run the world? Or, more accurately, upon whom does the entire flipping world depend? The formal part of #UNCSW68 has finished, and I don't feel like I'm ever going to be able to see the world the same as I did before. As well as the well-publicised unseen value of women's unpaid caring and domestic work, caring professions, dominated by women, are globally underpaid. Let that sink in for a moment - the profession which cares for the most valuable things in life - our children and elderly family members - is dominated by women and is a major contributor to the global earnings gap between men and women. And when I say dominated by women, depressingly I mean at the lower levels - because there is STILL a #GenderPayGap in the caring professions, and it's there because the men who work in that sector are at the top of it, earning the biggest salaries. I talked in a previous video about the importance of "grass roots" organisations in lobbying for change, and I've had the privilege of meeting so many women who are part of these organisations over the past few weeks - they are forces of nature - strong, passionate women who are taking their own experiences and using it to support others. How different the world would be if governments looked at everything they did with a more gendered lens: We'd recognise the importance of care. We'd properly value the professions which deliver this care. We'd create societal structures which encourage a more equitable split of the unpaid caring responsibilities. We'd see organisations and businesses working much harder to mitigate the imbalance in society instead of continuing to penalise those who care for others as well as their paid work. So what can we actually DO to make a difference? 📖 Educate ourselves - I spend all day, every day focussed on the topic of equality, and I am still learning. As a starting point, I'd recommend the amazing Caroline Criado Perez's book "Invisible Women". DATA is so important, and Criado Perez is the Queen of the gender data gap. ☘ Find the grassroots organisations which are supporting change and see what you can do to help. 📉 If you are in a position to make a difference in an organisation, be the ones to buck the trend - encourage the men in your organisation to take up shared parental leave, and to think about flexible working opportunities to take on childcare responsibilities. We set up A New Normal Ltd in recognition that workplaces do have the opportunity to influence change. So if you can be that change - then do it. ❤️ Support the carers in your life - There isn't much in the way of structural support out there - every government funded body is at breaking point, and the charities are struggling for funding, so we need each other more than ever. Sending love, solidarity and gratitude to all the amazing people I've met in the last two weeks. You ROCK!

Such a brilliant article from Emily Hamilton on the additional considerations members of the #LGBTQIA community have to find time, space and energy for when preparing to travel. An absolute must-read for anyone whose organisation requires employees to travel for work. Scratch that - it's a really important read for anyone. Huge thanks to Emily for taking the time to document all this on top of what must have been an enormously draining amount of research for this trip ❤️

It takes four times as long for women to be diagnosed with the same illnesses as men... Are you surprised? I think a lot of people who I'm connected with know that I am a carer for my gorgeous Mum - she's an incredible, determined (read stubborn), wonderful 77 year old who's spent the last few years feeling pretty broken with various conditions. So I was really keen to attend a side session as part of #UNCSW68 yesterday, hosted by the amazing Amelia Underwood-King from Patient No More on gender inequity in healthcare. There were four incredible speakers - Amelia herself; Leanne Pero who founded Black Women Rising UK - supporting Women of Colour through cancer diagnosis and treatment; Atinuke Awe the Co-Founder of 5XMore, an organisation advocating for Women of Colour through #pregnancy, birth and post-birth and Marieke Bigg author of "This Won't Hurt" a book on gender inequity in healthcare. The session created an incredible safe space where we heard from the speakers, but also audience members about their experiences. It was emotional, powerful and humbling. Two key lessons which came out of this for me: 1. Personally - As women, we need to be really strong #advocates for ourselves in a healthcare environment. 2. For #government and #healthcare organisations - The #grassroots organisations, like the ones run by Leanne and Tinuke are trusted by, listened to and spoken to by the communities you need to reach. Go to them first, not as an afterthought or validation point - you will make MUCH QUICKER progress. I wanted to say a HUGE thank you to the amazing speakers, not only for their time, and creating such a safe space yesterday, but also for the important work they do every day ❤️ 📘 Marieke's book is here: https://lnkd.in/eDwqWS5Y 🏥 You can find out more about Black Women Rising, the charity Leanne founded here: https://lnkd.in/eSEReQcs 🤰🏾To see more about the work Tinuke and her team do at Five X More, see: https://fivexmore.org/ 💊 You can find out more about Amelia's work at Patient No More, see https://lnkd.in/e4327TbX

No wonder we're knackered.... The theme of this year's #UNCSW68 is “Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective”. So the conversations are naturally focused on the financial empowerment of women and girls. It struck me though that one of the things I've heard time and time again in the amazing sessions of the CSW is the role of "Grass Roots" women's organisations. And my suspicion is that a lot of these organisations are primarily powered by #volunteers So let's stack this up... Women: 👐 Carry out around 60% more unpaid caring work than men. 🍳 Perform 75% of unpaid domestic duties globally. 💰 Can expect to experience a gender pay gap in the UK for the next 28 years (globally for the next 100 years). And we're supporting the #Grassroots organisations which are working to dismantle all of these things. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids, I'm proud to be a carer for my amazing mum, and thrilled to be part of the #UNCSW68 UK delegation, along with running A New Normal Ltd, and my first thought on the coalescence of all these facts was - "Good lord - no wonder we're all knackered." I participated in a conversation with some of my amazing fellow delegates on Friday evening, and this was a topic which frequently came up, especially in light of everything which has been going on in the last week... It reminded me of this amazing Michael Moore quote, and I know it resonated with a number of the amazing women I spoke with last week: “This morning I have been pondering a nearly forgotten lesson I learned in high school music. Sometimes in band or choir, music requires players or singers to hold a note longer than they actually can hold a note. In those cases, we were taught to mindfully stagger when we took a breath so the sound appeared uninterrupted. Everyone got to breathe, and the music stayed strong and vibrant… [In] “protest fatigue” – we will literally lose our will to continue the fight in the face of the onslaught of negative action. Let’s remember MUSIC. Take a breath. The rest of the chorus will sing. The rest of the band will play. Rejoin so others can breathe. Together, we can sustain a very long, beautiful song for a very, very long time. You don’t have to do it all, but you must add your voice to the song." Sending love, support and appreciation to all the people giving their time to this important work around the world, and especially my fellow UN Women UK delegates and the amazing women who've spoken already at the CSW sessions.

As part of UN Women UK's delegation for CSW68, we have heard time and time again over the past week about the importance of representation for women in government. Seeing how appallingly Diane Abbott has been treated again, I wonder what on earth the incentive could be for young women and girls to consider heading into politics. We absolutely support this petition - we have to do better collectively, and this is a first step. There must be consequences for this kind of behaviour.

#RepresentationMatters