Campaign Update and Next Steps (March 2021)
Dear amazing SHE’s,
It is with great excitement that we are approaching International Women’s Day: Will the UK government finally appoint some women to the COP26 Leadership Team?
We're planning another Twitterstorm to Alok Sharma on International Women's Day (8th March) and we need your help!
On the morning of March 8, please tweet Alok Sharma, COP26 President to ask him when he will be doing something about this. Here is our tweet and graphic to use:
Tweet:
Where are the women @AlokSharma_RDG?
@sheclimate met you 3 months ago to discuss the lack of gender diversity at the top of @COP26 UK leadership team & we've seen no progress.
We need 6 women at the top, so what’s your action plan?#ChooseToChallenge #SHEChangesClimate #IWD2021
Graphic:
The COP26 website still shows more men at the top than women. Whilst there has been some progress since an all male-line up was appointed originally, it is still not good enough. We appreciate there has been a change of atmosphere and openness within the COP26 team, but the UK has to send a clear signal on Women and their equality, if it wants to be a credible COP26 host and champion of the Gender Action Plan.
To drive the process and get more women appointed, we have:
Met with Cleo Watson, new Chief of Staff to the President of COP26, for a very constructive dialogue around appointments which we hope will lead to results.
Submitted a list of names of women for suggested roles in COP26.
Chasing a response to our submission of tangential creative solutions to bring more women to the top of the senior leadership team.
Requested a meeting with Caroline Holtum, Director of Communications for COP26, to discuss an action plan to showcase women of COP26.
Met with representatives of the B Team, ActionAid, WECAN, WEdo, the 30% Club, The Green Cross and the Fearless Women group to talk about how we can align our strategies.
Spoke with Salka Sigurdardottir, Head of Cross Cutting Issues for COP26, to discuss their COP26 event for International Women’s Day on Gender Equality, which we would have liked to participate in but can not, until the UK has levelled up its own leadership team and is leading on the Gender Action Plan by own example.
Partnered withWomen of the World (WOW) for International Women’s Day, to record a panel of female environmental leaders: Yetunde Kehinde, Esmeralda of Belgium, Arizona Muse and Malini Mehra on “Women as Champions of Solutions”.
Collaborated with Alice Aedy and Earthrise for an interview where Antoinette talked about SHEChangesClimate. This will be shared on Alice Aedy's Instagram page soon so please give Alice a follow and share the post when it's live.
Co-conspired with PlanetShine and Rachel McClelland to create a series of videos promoting Women as Champions of Solutions.
Partnered withWomen's Virtual “March” on Sunday 7 March. #March4Women organised by CARE International, is a digital event this year. If you are interested in participating too, please feel free to share a selfie and flood social media with their #StopTellingHalfTheStory filter. The bespoke Instagram filter is available on CARE International UK’s Instagram for everyone to use and share on Sunday 7th March. Share your “stop telling half the story” image and encourage your followers to make and share their own, using the filter.
We are still frustrated by the lack of action. We are looking for three metrics of success:
Perspective: At director level we need to see 50% women, so they can influence framing and narrative of the COP26 agenda. Currently there are only 3 women at director level out of 12 positions.
Perception: All communication from COP26 should have both male and female voices represented. As it stands, men are given the airtime and women aren’t seen to be contributing.
Space: We have to create legacy. If women aren’t seen to be leading in this process, we are doing a disservice to the young women and daughters who follow in our wake. They can’t be what they can’t see. Now is the time to create that ‘space’ and let women fill it.
We will continue to push for changes and would appreciate your help with the following:
1. Tweet Alok Sharma on IWD March 8 using our sample Tweet and graphic above (you can also find them in our Toolkit). The more noise we make, the more likely he'll take notice.
2. Sign our campaign letter if you haven't already done so. We want to take this global; the more names supporting this campaign the greater the impact.
3. Share our newsletter with your contacts within women's and diversity groups and encourage them to subscribe via our website to help us grow our community. It is vital that we can bring as many groups along to make the pressure to make this change.
4. Download our Digital Toolkit and keep sharing our ready-made content to your social channels to start fanning the embers of this fire. We need flames to create enough heat for reaction. Don't forget to tag us using @SheClimate so we can see it!
We’ll continue to share updates, our plan of action and ways you can support SHE Changes Climate via our newsletter and social channels (Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn & Facebook). Please encourage all the brilliant women you know to follow us and subscribe, so we can grow our community.
Lastly - and most importantly - the biggest thank you to each and every one of you for your support. Please take a moment to appreciate what YOU helped make happen.
Onwards!
The SHE Changes Climate team