[Music]
when we asked 16 young women of color
from all over the US and their senior
years of high school with their thoughts
and feelings on making an impact on the
world work this is what some of them
told us notice as I read these quotes
the metaphor of journey that they evoke
my track is very curvy and bumpy but
that doesn’t really scare me because I
know I’m going to make it somehow I feel
like a shooting star that just comes out
of nowhere and just shines
I’ll come out of nowhere and accomplish
my goals
people just underestimate me because
they don’t see my motivation but we were
more interested in understanding their
experience and perceptions beyond what
is just revealed in plain conversation
which is why we use the emit a patented
metaphor elicitation technique that’s
been used all over the world to reveal
the deeper unconscious meanings behind
the metaphorical images we ask them to
bring in to represent to represent those
thoughts and feelings these are some of
their images at surface level these
girls described images that represented
their ambition to change their
communities and the world they saw
themselves as the heroes of their own
narratives and they were confident in
their ability to succeed however when we
dug deeper into the imagery we saw a
strange and rather eerie trend pretty
stark contrast right so what exactly is
going on here we’ve all heard that a
picture is worth a thousand words and
while that saying is cliche research and
cognitive psychology suggests that these
women these young women chose their
images based on implicit attitudes
values and beliefs that is unconscious
and relatively automatic features of
thought let’s take a closer look at some
of these images what do we see she
rarely brings in images of her full body
and instead her images have only
disembodied hands and feet
she avoids bringing in images that show
her facial expressions instead choosing
to turn her back to us as the viewer or
by hiding behind silhouettes and shadowy
figures she brings in images that
represent isolated spaces and sometimes
she represents herself as isolated even
in crowded places so what does all of
this mean when we look at these images
we see a girl who feels who feels
isolated from herself and detached from
both herself in the environment and
although we see journeys of transition
in her images what’s beyond the horizon
is unclear although these girls are
confident in their ability to make an
impact on the world they can’t they
their future is uncertain
they can’t foresee what might come after
it work for them and that can be really
scary these images provide rich
metaphors for the worlds that these
girls experience and they provide clues
that may not have been otherwise
revealed in plain conversation and that
brings us to the bigger question what
exactly could be standing in their way
amongst a plethora of obstacles these
girls face is one of the biggest
problems in our society a lack of media
representation and role models for these
girls being able to identify role models
in media and in reality helps these
girls fulfill the futures that they
dream of however positions of leadership
visible leadership are predominately
occupied by white men and some white
women while minority women remain
largely underrepresented in 2016 for
example women made up of about 20% of
board seats in the fortune 500
while minority women made up less than
4% in Congress women made up about 19%
of the elected body while minority women
made up less than 6% and although now
women now make up about 30% of the
science and engineering workforce women
of color make up less than 10
of employed scientists and engineers and
if you’re wondering why all of these
statistics I’m throwing at you seem kind
of random and unrelated it’s because for
the most part these statistics are meant
to cover the experience of women in
general which doesn’t tell us the full
story because a majority of these women
leaders are white when it comes to
minority women the numbers are much much
lower given all of this it’s probably
not surprising that the same norms are
reflected in fiction for example when
you think of the word hero what do you
imagine
Superman is probably one of the first
then there’s Batman and Robin spider-man
Iron Man Captain America and maybe even
Harry Potter we do sometimes see women
in these roles for example superwoman
Hermione Granger Black Widow Katniss
Everdeen and Princess Lea but what’s
wrong with these pictures there are no
minority women and they’re so seldom
found in the role of hero that we may
not even think of them when we hear the
word when minority women are found in
these heroic roles they’re overshadowed
by their white counterparts take the
disney world for example mulan risked
her life and her family’s honour in
order to save her father and end up
saying saving all of china
tiana spent hours trying to save up for
her own restaurant to make her dreams a
reality without any man in picture a
nanny went from job to job just to keep
the social services from taking her
sister lilo away and yet anna and elsa
are considered disney’s feminist icons
even in media and advertising minority
women are underrepresented instead we
use white mode women to represent their
culture for me growing up personally I
didn’t have any relatable role model
both in media and reality and I spent
most of my life attempting to fulfill
the expectations of the people around me
who tried to tell me what kind of life
and career goals
I should have based on my gender and
ethnicity I hated not only being a
female but also a minority
I felt ashamed when I was comparing
myself to white women and girls who
seemingly had a greater potential to
succeed just because they had role
models who look like them only now
through my background in psychology and
through seeking psychotherapy for some
of these negative and self-defeating
thoughts do I understand the whys behind
the feelings I felt when I was younger
but that’s not good enough what can we
do for young women like me today who are
experiencing these same complex feelings
how can we ultimately help them awaken
their inner hero social cultural and
political change don’t happen overnight
but that shouldn’t discourage us from
taking the small steps to make a bigger
change here’s how you can help whether
you’re a content creator or just an
average everyday person recognize how
young women of color see themselves they
see themselves the girls that we spoke
to see themselves as the heroes of their
own narratives they vision a bright
future for themselves and although they
they first see obstacles they know that
they’ll eventually overcome them they’re
headstrong and they’ll stand for what
they believe in encourage them celebrate
them hear their stories share their
stories and not just the stories that
other people made up for them help them
to 5 stereotypes and show them that you
think they can be big and bold make them
feel confident and represent their real
true selves don’t just leave them with
an ambiguous ending show them that you
think they can truly be heroes not only
of their own narratives but for others
too
our job as part of society is to help
these women feel empowered and help
awaken their inner hero and when we
young women feel like we when we young
women feel like we can make a change and
we have no limitations that gives us
hope and it makes us even more excited
when other people think that we can make
a difference to the young women that we
spoke to told us that they feel more
positive feelings of encouragement unity
and incompetency when they’re surrounded
by other people like them imagine if the
support and sense of belonging extended
beyond just their peer groups and to the
rest of society thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
when we asked 16 young women of color
from all over the US and their senior
years of high school with their thoughts
and feelings on making an impact on the
world work this is what some of them
told us notice as I read these quotes
the metaphor of journey that they evoke
my track is very curvy and bumpy but
that doesn’t really scare me because I
know I’m going to make it somehow I feel
like a shooting star that just comes out
of nowhere and just shines
I’ll come out of nowhere and accomplish
my goals
people just underestimate me because
they don’t see my motivation but we were
more interested in understanding their
experience and perceptions beyond what
is just revealed in plain conversation
which is why we use the emit a patented
metaphor elicitation technique that’s
been used all over the world to reveal
the deeper unconscious meanings behind
the metaphorical images we ask them to
bring in to represent to represent those
thoughts and feelings these are some of
their images at surface level these
girls described images that represented
their ambition to change their
communities and the world they saw
themselves as the heroes of their own
narratives and they were confident in
their ability to succeed however when we
dug deeper into the imagery we saw a
strange and rather eerie trend pretty
stark contrast right so what exactly is
going on here we’ve all heard that a
picture is worth a thousand words and
while that saying is cliche research and
cognitive psychology suggests that these
women these young women chose their
images based on implicit attitudes
values and beliefs that is unconscious
and relatively automatic features of
thought let’s take a closer look at some
of these images what do we see she
rarely brings in images of her full body
and instead her images have only
disembodied hands and feet
she avoids bringing in images that show
her facial expressions instead choosing
to turn her back to us as the viewer or
by hiding behind silhouettes and shadowy
figures she brings in images that
represent isolated spaces and sometimes
she represents herself as isolated even
in crowded places so what does all of
this mean when we look at these images
we see a girl who feels who feels
isolated from herself and detached from
both herself in the environment and
although we see journeys of transition
in her images what’s beyond the horizon
is unclear although these girls are
confident in their ability to make an
impact on the world they can’t they
their future is uncertain
they can’t foresee what might come after
it work for them and that can be really
scary these images provide rich
metaphors for the worlds that these
girls experience and they provide clues
that may not have been otherwise
revealed in plain conversation and that
brings us to the bigger question what
exactly could be standing in their way
amongst a plethora of obstacles these
girls face is one of the biggest
problems in our society a lack of media
representation and role models for these
girls being able to identify role models
in media and in reality helps these
girls fulfill the futures that they
dream of however positions of leadership
visible leadership are predominately
occupied by white men and some white
women while minority women remain
largely underrepresented in 2016 for
example women made up of about 20% of
board seats in the fortune 500
while minority women made up less than
4% in Congress women made up about 19%
of the elected body while minority women
made up less than 6% and although now
women now make up about 30% of the
science and engineering workforce women
of color make up less than 10
of employed scientists and engineers and
if you’re wondering why all of these
statistics I’m throwing at you seem kind
of random and unrelated it’s because for
the most part these statistics are meant
to cover the experience of women in
general which doesn’t tell us the full
story because a majority of these women
leaders are white when it comes to
minority women the numbers are much much
lower given all of this it’s probably
not surprising that the same norms are
reflected in fiction for example when
you think of the word hero what do you
imagine
Superman is probably one of the first
then there’s Batman and Robin spider-man
Iron Man Captain America and maybe even
Harry Potter we do sometimes see women
in these roles for example superwoman
Hermione Granger Black Widow Katniss
Everdeen and Princess Lea but what’s
wrong with these pictures there are no
minority women and they’re so seldom
found in the role of hero that we may
not even think of them when we hear the
word when minority women are found in
these heroic roles they’re overshadowed
by their white counterparts take the
disney world for example mulan risked
her life and her family’s honour in
order to save her father and end up
saying saving all of china
tiana spent hours trying to save up for
her own restaurant to make her dreams a
reality without any man in picture a
nanny went from job to job just to keep
the social services from taking her
sister lilo away and yet anna and elsa
are considered disney’s feminist icons
even in media and advertising minority
women are underrepresented instead we
use white mode women to represent their
culture for me growing up personally I
didn’t have any relatable role model
both in media and reality and I spent
most of my life attempting to fulfill
the expectations of the people around me
who tried to tell me what kind of life
and career goals
I should have based on my gender and
ethnicity I hated not only being a
female but also a minority
I felt ashamed when I was comparing
myself to white women and girls who
seemingly had a greater potential to
succeed just because they had role
models who look like them only now
through my background in psychology and
through seeking psychotherapy for some
of these negative and self-defeating
thoughts do I understand the whys behind
the feelings I felt when I was younger
but that’s not good enough what can we
do for young women like me today who are
experiencing these same complex feelings
how can we ultimately help them awaken
their inner hero social cultural and
political change don’t happen overnight
but that shouldn’t discourage us from
taking the small steps to make a bigger
change here’s how you can help whether
you’re a content creator or just an
average everyday person recognize how
young women of color see themselves they
see themselves the girls that we spoke
to see themselves as the heroes of their
own narratives they vision a bright
future for themselves and although they
they first see obstacles they know that
they’ll eventually overcome them they’re
headstrong and they’ll stand for what
they believe in encourage them celebrate
them hear their stories share their
stories and not just the stories that
other people made up for them help them
to 5 stereotypes and show them that you
think they can be big and bold make them
feel confident and represent their real
true selves don’t just leave them with
an ambiguous ending show them that you
think they can truly be heroes not only
of their own narratives but for others
too
our job as part of society is to help
these women feel empowered and help
awaken their inner hero and when we
young women feel like we when we young
women feel like we can make a change and
we have no limitations that gives us
hope and it makes us even more excited
when other people think that we can make
a difference to the young women that we
spoke to told us that they feel more
positive feelings of encouragement unity
and incompetency when they’re surrounded
by other people like them imagine if the
support and sense of belonging extended
beyond just their peer groups and to the
rest of society thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
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