Margaret SpenceFounder, The Inclusion Learning Lab · AI Governance Strategy for CHROs | Author, When AI Breaks the Law | SXSW Speaker: Human+AI CoLab and AI Skills Gap for Women | Substack: AI Governance for HR & The Undisruptable Woman

Empowering Women: Reclaiming Our Own Power

29 Jan 2024 · 1 min

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In this opening segment, the speaker challenges the prevailing corporate and HR discourse that emphasizes "empowering women" within organizations. Addressing leaders, managers, and HR professionals, she argues that the premise is flawed: women, including women of color, do not require empowerment from their employers because they already possess agency and power. She repeats the claim for emphasis, positioning it as a foundational statement for her broader argument that empowerment initiatives are unnecessary and perhaps patronizing.

Chapters

For some reason, organization leaders, managers, and in general people in the HR community feel that what they need to be doing is empowering women. And it sounds good on paper, and I've used the terminology empowering women, but the reality is No woman needs to be empowered by an organization. I'm going to say that again: no woman needs to be empowered by an organization. No woman of color needs to be empowered by her organization.