Today, on International Women’s Day, we are re-publishing an editorial from our Director and Founder, Isabel Eva Bohrer. The original editorial was first published on January 11, 2018 in English and Spanish.
On International Women’s Day, women from all over the world are taking a stand, marching, towards gender equality. Gender equality has always been important to us at ROOSTERGNN, a fact that I clearly affirmed when first publishing this editorial back in 2018.
Just over a month ago, we launched RGNN.org 4.0, a publication by the most stylish student journalists across over 400 universities worldwide. And as I wrote in another editorial when we launched RGNN.org 4.0, in a world in which beauty brands like Glossier are democratizing beauty, the same world in which lingerie companies such as Victoria’s Secret are rethinking their strategies on body image and diversity, and in which the #MeToo movement has risen to the top, gender equality is an important topic in fashion and beauty.
Without a doubt, the worlds of fashion and beauty employ more females than males. Already before we launched RGNN.org 4.0, we noted an affluence of female applicants for both our Academy and our Artist Residency. Now, the majority of our student journalists publishing on RGNN.org continue to be female. But we give equal opportunities regardless of gender, just as I explained in my original editorial. Read it below, and join us in the fight for eliminating gender as an obstacle in a career.
The study that sparked the original editorial from 2018
At ROOSTERGNN, we were recently given access to a gender macro-study carried out by Metroscopia and presented at the Congress of Human Rights organized by the Spanish Lawyer Foundation (Fundación Abogacía Española).
The gender macro-study surveyed a sample of 2,000 male and female lawyers practising in Spain, revealing key conclusions about gender equality in the Spanish law workplace.
The essential denominator of the study: equality is a priority, writes Francisco Camas García, a Metroscopia analyst and gender study expert with a Doctorate in Social Sciences from the University of Granada, in the December issue of the Abogacía Española magazine. However, Camas García also accentuates that there are quite significant disagreements between male and female lawyers that highlight that the situation is still far from ideal.
To give some examples:
- 67% of men do not believe that “macho” behavior prevails, something that only one in three women thinks.
- Twice as many male lawyers as female lawyers believe that salaries are more or less equal between men and women.
- Three out of four female lawyers consider that not having family responsibilities is important for professional success. Only one in two men shares this opinion.
- There is a glass ceiling for 77% of female lawyers. Only 40% of men think this is so.
- 85% of female lawyers believe that men find it less difficult to access positions of responsibility in large law firms.
Spain has come a long way when it comes to gender equality in the workplace. But there is still work to be done.
In 2020, RGNN stays strong in its gender equality policy
At ROOSTERGNN, we are proud to offer equal salaries for both male and female applicants – our in-house staff, our external freelancers, our Experts and Mentors at ROOSTERGNN Academy, our local support, etc. It is a person’s performance, not his or her gender, that must dictate monetary rewards.
Especially in humanities fields such as journalism, communications, the arts, [and as we incorporate fashion and beauty with RGNN.org 4.0], there is an abundance of female candidates. While we do note an affluence of female applicants for both our Academy and our Artist Residency, our admissions process is gender-blind and equally open to both males and females, with talent being the primary source of evaluation. It is essential that in the worlds of communications and journalism, all genders be equally represented, and all voices equally heard. So, too, should the possibility of having a family be compatible with a successful career.
Let’s continue the fight for eliminating gender as an obstacle in a career, and instead an enrichment; a multitude of voices is always better than one.
