Put your hands up Transforming an uneven industry requires women to take every opportunity to succeed – and even fail – writes VERASHNI PILLAY.
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ometimes I look around and wonder … where are my female peers? I am a young-ish female media entrepreneur. I can count on one hand others like me in South Africa – heck, even in the region. That’s understandable. It’s damn hard to be an entrepreneur in any field – especially journalism, where the business model is still in disarray. And with the added, invisible pressures of being a women? Ha. In fact, just being a woman leader is difficult. The double standards are real.
You’ve probably heard a bit about the most infamous episode of my career: the HuffPost fake blog. I learned my lesson and resigned on principle. The experience heavily informed my current project: explain.co.za. As I said in my TEDx talk, thanks to my mistake I started earnestly researching and working on new models of news that are in-depth and thoroughly researched. Looking back, it’s clear that I paid a much steeper price than other editors who made similar mistakes. For example, HuffPost and Soccer Verashni Pillay
28 I W O M E N I N T H E M E D I A
themediaonline.co.za
Laduma were both Media24 titles. Soccer Laduma once published fake quotes but the editor, Peter du Toit, didn’t face anywhere near the same heat I did from Media24’s bosses, nor consequences for his livelihood and reputation. So how do we as women overcome these double standards, and the increased pressure we face in the public space as leaders, particularly in an area as tricky as media? And all this while usually assuming more of the domestic responsibilities at home. I firmly believe in the levelling effect of support programmes and policy.
HOW MUCH PRIVILEGE IS ENOUGH?
I left full-time employment for the first time at the end of 2019, and started explain.co.za, after years of dreaming about it and preparing. I was 35. I became an entrepreneur relatively late in life, after going the corporate career ladder route in my 20s and early 30s. This means that I have access to more social and financial capital than the average entrepreneur. This includes personal savings (now depleted, haha). But here’s the thing: it’s been so hard for me. And I’m so privileged. For others, particularly black women, it’s insanely hard. Getting one’s foot in the door as an entrepreneur requires so much support. There’s a reason many of those who make it in South Africa come from the upper middle class. One solution is incubation/start-up programmes that actually work. This is a buzzing space with so much on offer but little of value. Personally
