Invisible Women
Good morning friends
Thank you for the messages checking on my recovery. Like Covid itself, it is filled with unpleasant surprises. I feel strong and positive, only to be hit by an unexpected fit of coughing that feels like I have Floyd Mayweather paying his special kind of attention to my kidneys. Friday morning’s coughing had me pleading quietly and irrationally, “Please, don’t be coming back”.
Some days I have been in bed by 18h00 exhausted unable to take another step, but then am still awake at 23h00, unable to find a resting position that works. Then unexpected dark clouds cross my heart, sometimes creating moments of depression, sometimes heart-thumping anxiety. I’m learning to wait those out, but they are tiring when they hit.
Covid has also strangely left me with an acute appreciation of life and its beauty.
The gentle light of the sun caressing Devil’s Peak as it settles to sleep behind the ocean. The jazz percussion of winter rain on the roof; discordant, wild, and beautiful. This new appreciation for life and it’s possibilities, is a form of blessing.
Language also fails me. What does one say to those who have lost those they love in this time? Our usual rituals, our words, feel inadequate. Perhaps silence is the only place big enough to hold the bewildering pain.
Each day brings darkness and light. Each life, moments of pain and moments of celebration. We live. And we look for beauty, for hope, for the promise of tomorrow. It is, life amplified.
There is also much to celebrate.
Wednesday afternoon gave me the beauty of this rainbow looping over Table Mountain. Thursday night brought eight hours sleep. Friday afternoon I managed a three kilometer walk through our suburb. Saturday morning’s coughing was far closer to my boxing skills than Mayweather’s.
I am writing to you. You are reading. Thank you.
People I care about have been fighting their own fight with Covid and have made their way through it, weakened, transformed perhaps, but here.
Member of this community, Lethabo Motsoaledi and her co-founder Matthew Westway’s company Voyc recently won the Netherland’s Blue Tulip Award for innovation in the Finance and Prosperity category. My wonderful friend, Toke Ibru, executive producer of film Eyimofe, was jubilant this week as the film was a New York Times Critic’s Pick and got great coverage in Variety.
Another friend Matthew Hindley, one of the most talented artists of his generation, had his abstracts sold in a heartbeat at a London show. It comes as no suprise to me, because they do transport you into another plane of possibility.
I love seeing Africans owning their place in their world.
As I grow accustomed to my sharpened appreciation for our planet and its inhabitants, I have been contemplating all the times I have failed to properly see others, the times I hadn’t listened, the times my own biases had blinded me to the wonder of the person in front of me, had deafened me to music of their voice. And so, today we turn to Caroline Criado Perez’s must-read Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men.
/ STRATEGY
Perez tells the story of Karlskoga, in Sweden. Public officials were required to reassess all their policies through a gendered lens. One quipped, “Does that include snow-clearing?” You can hear it, can’t you? Inevitably, you have heard a version of it.
What became clear was that snow-clearing was indeed sexist. The snow machine schedules and maps were dictated by the needs of rush-hour car traffic. And cars, even in Sweden, are overwhelmingly driven by men. This bias meant that pedestrians and public transport users, predominantly women were discriminated against.
Confronting this data the officials did an about-turn, figuring – rightly – it is easier to drive through snow, than walk or push a child’s pram through the same snow and so they prioritized clearing pavements and walkways.
Further investigation showed that the cost of pedestrian accidents in icy weather was 2 to 3 times the cost of the snow clearing!
Being compelled to see everyone resulted in considerable savings, not just to Karlskoga but to towns across Sweden that adopted their approach. A saving of at least R30 million – every winter!
How might biases in your organisation’s data be hiding costs or opportunities?
/ SELF
Visibility rests not only in addressing the impersonal scythe of datasets but also in our decision as to whether we will do the work to truly see, to truly listen to the person in front of us.
Rockstar Skin describes in her autobiography, It Takes Blood and Guts, how she was made to feel invisible.
As a teenager, she wanted to be a photojournalist. She poured herself into investigating what was required and then went to see the careers officer at her school.
She describes what happened, “I told this secret to the careers officer while she listened very carefully. ‘Great’, I thought. ‘She knows what I’m talking about’. I showed her all the information I’d collected about becoming a photojournalist or camerawoman, and when I finished talking, she carefully put it to one side and slid an application form in front of me.
‘While you’re thinking about that, there’s a full-time job going in Woolworths,’ she said. ‘They’re looking for people like you. I’m sure you’ll get it.’
I was astounded. I’d just poured out my dreams to her, the first person I’d told them to, thinking she understood me, but the whole time she was just waiting for the right moment to show me that Woolworths application form. I was hurt because I hadn’t been listened to, I hadn’t been seen and I knew exactly what she meant when she said, ‘people like you’. I knew all about Woolworths. I’d already had a Saturday job there. I picked up the form out of politeness, then left disgusted.”
Pause for a moment.
Think about the times that you’ve been made to feel invisible.
Take a step further, when have you failed to truly see the person in front of you?
Take another step, when have you viewed the person in front of you through the lens of some preconception or prejudice?
Building your awareness is the first step to change.
How might you, the next time around, be sure that you are truly seeing the person in front of you?
Try an experiment today. Be conscious of every interaction you have. Can you make each one a micro-moment where you gift someone your attention, where you find an opportunity to be kind in your engagement, no matter how fleeting it is? It is a practice in giving attention. You’ll learn something about yourself. Guaranteed.
Of course, I am tempted to ask, “Do you see yourself?” but that is another topic for another day 😉
/ SOUL
The Ubuntu Archives are dedicated to making visible and celebrating the stories of black South Africans. They are helping soften colonialism and apartheid’s scarring that continues to restrict our imagination, constrain our connection, and deny us our potential.
By helping us to see the magnificence in our past, by telling the untold stories, they help us reformulate our identity.
I love this story of Regina Gelana Twala, who became one of the first black women to graduate from Wits. She did so at the age of 40, reminding us that learning can and should happen throughout our lives.
Powerhouse artist Nandipha Mntambo has consistently used her likeness at the heart of her work. This work in progress will amaze you.
If this is the first time you’ve read strategy, soul, and self you can subscribe here.
Think of the people who make you feel seen. Thank them. Their seeing has helped you be more. Please share this letter with them, I would like to know them and be in conversation with them.
I hope that your week is filled with seeing and being seen.
Karl
PS: I invest 600 hours a year in reading and learning to support my clients. I share extra snippets on my Instagram and LinkedIn profiles. If you’d like me to recommend something to read or listen to, drop me a mail. I’d be happy to do so.
PPS: Of course, I’m also a coach. If you’re curious about working with me, I am always happy to have a no-obligation conversation. Drop me an email and let’s find a time to speak with each other.
(This letter was first published on 25 July 2021)