I’m not here to grandstand. I’m not trying to be the voice of women. I’m a creative leader, and when I see inequality in pay, promotion, or recognition, I speak up. Staying in your lane doesn’t mean staying silent. It means knowing your role and using it well. If you lead creative people, if you care about good work, if you’ve ever hired or managed a team, then equality isn’t someone else’s job. It’s yours.
I’ve hesitated to write about it. Not because I don’t have a position, but because I’ve never wanted to speak over those more qualified or more affected. I still don’t. But I also don’t think silence helps. If leadership means anything, it means protecting people, creating fair systems, and speaking up when something is broken. Even when it doesn’t affect you directly.
What frustrates me is how persistent some of these imbalances still are. Not just in ancient industries or outdated cultures, but in creative, modern, progressive environments. Environments where ideas are everything, but where recognition isn’t always equally distributed. Where women are expected to do more to prove less, or prove the same and still be paid less. That’s not just wrong. It’s embarrassing.
That said, let me be clear. I’m not advocating for the pendulum to swing so far that gender becomes the reason someone is hired, promoted, or rewarded. That’s not equity either. What I care about is value. What someone brings to the table. The ideas they put forward. The thinking, the leadership, the solutions, the outcomes. Pay them for that. Not for their gender. Not despite it either. Just pay them what they’re worth.
This should be obvious, but apparently it still isn’t. I’ve always believed compensation should reflect contribution. Not race. Not sexual orientation. Not how confident someone appears in a meeting. Not how many hours they spend visible. Not whether they ask for it, or whether someone else assumes they will. You’re not paid for who you are. You’re paid for what you make happen.
In creative industries, this becomes even more important. The work doesn’t carry a gender tag. A powerful idea doesn’t announce whether it came from a man or woman or team or intern. It either hits or it doesn’t. It either solves something or it doesn’t. Creativity, at its core, is neutral. The work is the work.
And if the work is good, it should be celebrated. If it moves the business, it should be rewarded. If someone leads a team well, if they shift the culture, if they spark new thinking, that’s what should matter. Not whether they fit some outdated picture of what leadership has historically looked like. I’ve met enough quiet leaders, collaborative problem-solvers, and brilliant thinkers to know that impact doesn’t always wear the loudest shoes in the room.
It’s not hard to fix this. But it does take awareness, consistency, and courage. It means checking how people are being measured. Looking at the salary data. Listening when someone says, “I don’t think this is fair,” instead of brushing it off as tone or attitude. It means making sure women, and anyone else who’s been sidelined, aren’t carrying the added burden of having to prove they belong every time they speak.
As a leader, it’s my job to watch for this. To make sure no one is being quietly penalised for who they are. To make sure everyone is treated with fairness, not favouritism. And to never let poor behaviour slide just because it’s uncomfortable to call it out. If someone is treating women poorly in your workplace, and you say nothing, then you’re part of the problem. Plain and simple.
We’re here to make great work. To build things that matter. That only happens when everyone has the freedom and respect to bring their best. So protect your people. Speak up when it’s needed. Fight for fairness, not favour. The best idea doesn’t care who came up with it, and neither should we.