WOMEN’S DAY

This month, the team at Essential Install were happy to support a special event put on by Pulse Cinemas to celebrate the theme of ‘Embracing Equity’the main message for this year’s International Women’s Day - and looking at ways to diversify the AV industry’s work force and attract more female professionals right across the sector. Pulse Cinemas were not the only company marking the event, with lots of companies in the sector showing their support, as well as recognising that a diverse workforce in terms of gender is a positive step all round.

The theme this year is an interesting one as it challenges some preconceived ideas about what ‘real equality’ or to use a better word ‘equity’ looks like. The concept involves challenging individuals and companies to think about the best ways to encourage more diversity by not thinking about ‘equality’, which can be a rather blunt tool, but ‘equity’, providing encouragement and support tailored to someone’s or a group’s particular needs. Think of it this way, two people stand on one side of a fence and want to see over it, you provide both people with a box to stand on of equal size, so you are being fair right? Well, what if the two people are of different heights - the taller person has help that suits their needs, but the shorter one is no better off as they still can’t see over the fence. Providing the people with two different boxes that meet their needs delivers ‘equity’.

Now none of this is easy, opinions are going to differ greatly on what help is needed in general to assist the industry to attract more women, but what is definitely true is that an industry that wants to grow and appeal to as wider group of customers as possible needs to diversify its make up so that we have the chance to draw on all the talent that is out there. That is why events and discussions need to be on-going in order to help companies identify what they can do, the likelihood is that this is going to vary from company to company, there is no one-size fits all solution in the modern world of work. Things have improved since EI began working in AV many moons ago now, and areas such as the Hi-Fi sector were very male dominated, and there is still a long way to go, but through dialogue progress will be made.

Getting In Touch

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Daniel J Sait, dan@allthingsmedialtd.com

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Beatrice Lee, beatrice@allthingsmedialtd.com

SALES DIRECTOR

Ian Kitchener, ian@allthingsmedialtd.com

GROUP AD MANAGER

Claire Talty, claire@allthingsmedialtd.com

PUBLISHER

David Kitchener, david@allthingsmedialtd.com

STUDIO MANAGER

Mark Weller, mark@allthingsmedialtd.com

ACCOUNTS susan@allthingsmedialtd.com

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