Advice from Emma Sexton, Founder of Make Your Words Work™ & Ex-director of SheSays

  • Emma Sexton
To celebrate International Women’s Day, we’re putting the spotlight on some of the most inspiring women in the creative industries on The Dots.

Over the rest of the week, we’ll be highlighting their work, thoughts on what it means to them to be in the creative industries, their inspirations, aspirations, iconic role models and sage words of advice.

Next up, we have Emma Sexton, Founder of Make Your Words Work™, Ex-Director of SheSays & Creator of women’s network Flock.
What does it mean to you to be female and in the creative industries?

The lack of women in the creative industries (and business in general) means that for me it is really important that I show young women a positive role model – when I was with SheSays our mantra was ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’ and the older I get the more important I see this to be.I also make sure I speak out to raise awareness of the sexism in the workplace and the work that is put out in the world.

Just the other day I received a promotional email for an event with 5 quotes from ‘leaders in the industry’ and they were all men. It is so unconscious – and I am not saying I am perfect – but we all need to call each other out on this.It’s about not looking back and being bitter about the disadvantages you have had in the industry for being female (but were not aware of at the time) and about doing everything you can to make sure the next generation of women don’t have to put up with it!

On another note – it is a really exciting time to be female in the industry. The world really is changing and we are at the beginning of a really interesting opportunity, where we can play a role in reshaping culture to make it better for women and men. It is going to be pretty epic.

Do you have words of wisdom for other women looking to break into the industry?

Yes – this quote “the world will not invite you to the feast, you must burst in demand a seat and take it”. Everything you want is there for the taking but you have to go out there and create those opportunities. For me the thing that has worked the most for me is to keep making the effort to do the small things – the things that sometimes you can’t really be bothered to do but know you really should.

Check The Dots, our blog, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for inspirational insight throughout the week.

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