International Women’s Day 2022: Breaking the bias

Lead image credit: Ana Jaks

To mark International Women’s Day, we're sharing a handful of bias-breaking projects and initiatives from our incredible community.

Elise Dennis: Levelling the playing field

Final year Game Development student Elise Dennis is an aspiring game designer and a professional player of the popular first-person shooter game Valorant. In 2021, she represented Falmouth University at the Women in Esports Conference, an event that was created to help women access and succeed within the evolving industry.

We sat down with Elise to discuss her profession, the changing esports landscape, and why too few women are making it into a business that holds plenty of opportunities for them.

Read more about Elise

Daisy Moon: Empowering women creatives

Music alumni Daisy Moon is a staple of the Bristol DJ scene, and now she’s hoping she can help continue to diversify often male-dominated profession.

Speaking on BBC Radio 6 Music in January, Daisy talked about her contribution to Mix Nights – a beginner level DJ course that trains cisgender women, non-binary and trans people to DJ in Bristol. The programme, which is run as a not-for-profit, has forged partnerships with local studios who provide space and equipment to help the course remain affordable.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Daisy Moon (@daisymoons)

Find out more about Daisy

Caitlin Gould: Bridging the health gap

Around the world, women suffer from delays in diagnosis, issues in treatment, misinformation, discrimination, and a lack of research and investment into women's health issues. This is the Women’s Health Gap.

Launchpad Entrepreneur in Residence Caitlin Gould is on a mission to bridge this divide. Partnering with Dr Rose Abbott, Caitlin is currently developing Kensa Health, a startup that aims to empower women by providing medical information, guidance and support.

Pauline Blanchet: Giving women the mic

In September last year, we partnered with innovation lab Fathm to host Reporting Earth – a journalism summit that centred on generating new ways to report on the climate crisis for a young, international audience. As part of the summit, participants pitched prototype ideas to a panel, with a select few receiving support to make their ideas happen.

Pauline Blanchet was one of those selected. She went on to produce Through Her Eyes, a film project aimed at commissioning women filmmakers, specifically in the Global South, to tell their story of the climate crisis.

‘Through Her Eyes’ is a film project that acknowledges #climate issues through the eyes of #women . Here’s @BlanchetPauline explaining more about her bursary winning project at @FalmouthUni's #ReportingEarth event. #Calltoearth #MAJournalism @faljournalism @fathmco pic.twitter.com/fFG0uZAbqE

— Falmouth Journalism (@faljournalism) September 30, 2021

Find out more about Pauline's project

Jessica & Nina: Breaking workplace bias 

In 2021 Creative Advertising alumni Jessica Kielstra and Nina Forbes went undercover to expose the gender bias that exists in the advertising industry with their project The Gender Agenda. Using the same portfolio in their applications to agency recruiters, Jessica and Nina posed as a male creative team and then a female team; they wanted to see whether there’d be a difference in the responses (spoiler alert – there was). 

Since releasing their findings, the pair have spoken at a range of events to spread the word, including the 3% Movement Conference. 

We’re a female team and we’ve experienced sexism in the ad world. And we doubted that we’re the only ones. So we designed an experiment to see if it was just us, or the industry.

Read about our findings at https://t.co/MkXq5LmVFf pic.twitter.com/zc1T8TvK0y

— The Gender Agenda (@gender_agenda_) April 9, 2021

Read The Gender Agenda

Ana Jaks: Illustrating Nike's 'Never Asked Questions' series 

Illustration graduate Ana Jaks illustrated series 4 of Nike's 'Never Asked Questions' series, which aimed to answer all the taboo questions about breasts, sports bras and exercise.

Calling Nike a "dream client", Ana says on her website that "this [project] consisted of drawing a diverse range of women in different scenarios when using a sports bra. These illustrations [were] used on socials, the Nike App and website."

Check out the work