Emma Barnett: Why women must view themselves differently
Emma Barnett, presenter of 5 live Daily, explains why she believes the BBC’s 100 Women season helps show why women should view themselves differently.
So much of how we see ourselves, our capabilities and the world around us is a state of mind. Too often we self-limit, based on restrictive messages about our circumstances which others have told us to believe.
Women in particular have been told for centuries that they can’t, shouldn’t and mustn’t do all sorts of things purely on account of their gender.
Consequently there is much rewriting to be done of ‘herstory’, as it were. In the media, we may take it for granted that women and girls know their worth and how far they can push themselves. And yet hundreds of years of restrictions still need unpicking and there are many glass ceilings left to shatter.
That’s why series such as the BBC’s 100 Women are important in changing the way women view themselves, and also to shine a spotlight on those stories that directly contradict the damaging narrative that women can’t do certain things.
When I came up with the idea for The Telegraph’s women’s section, which I launched and edited from 2012 to earlier this year, it was born out of frustration with women regularly being reduced purely to clothes horses and mums in the media and beyond.
Let me clear that there is nothing wrong with either status. But with a disproportionate emphasis still on how women look and their capability to breed, many other vital conversations get lost or overlooked entirely. Namely how to fuel women’s ambitions; how women can do things differently with political power; and how to do away with shame – something that dogs my gender from the bedroom to the boardroom.
My ambition with my writing and broadcasting has always been to confront taboo subjects and challenge what’s expected and accepted as the norm.
Hence in my first week in the new job, presenting BBC 5 live’s mid-morning programme, 5 live Daily, we explored what period pain is really doing to Britain’s working women. No detail was edited out –and a purpose-built confession booth ensured frank conversations with women from all walks of life (some of whom had never spoken aloud about their periods before).
Women and girls need to hear stories that challenge years of poisonous presumptions about their sex (something I have spoken more about in my TEDx talk) precisely so they don’t self-limit.
From the rewriting of Cinderella, to Paula Hawkins’ honesty about tricky female friendships, to Harnaam Kaur’s battle with her facial hair – all of these narratives from the BBC’s 100 Women season change minds. And that’s the next battleground.
While we may have the legislation for equality in this country, many hearts and minds have yet to be won over to the cause of true parity between the sexes.
Emma Barnett (@emmabarnett) presents BBC 5 live Daily from Wednesday to Friday at 10am. She also writes a weekly column called Tough Love in The Sunday Times Magazine, and has given a TEDx talk on female ambition and the invisible barriers women face.
