Let women wear what they want

The newsletter is taking August off!

But first here's this week's news from the parallel universe. Einstein was right, by the way.

Over the last few weeks we've seen female athletes being fined for wearing shorts not pants, and pulled up for pants that are too short, plus the European court ruled that women employees can be told not to wear hijabs in certain circumstances. It would be really good if women could wear whatever they want.

Fair play to the German gymnastics team:

In the case of the hijab, the debate about wearing religious symbols at work has been ongoing for some years. I've been in a number of discussions recently exploring where issues of bringing your whole self to work might bump up against your colleagues' whole selves, where your strongly-held belief might conflict with someone else's. I can't pretend to have the answers but I do think they lie in open dialogue rather than proscription.

The right wing's media cheerleaders continued their confected culture war by turning from the National Trust to take aim at the RNLI. For an excellent analysis of how the media has manipulated stories about the National Trust over the past few years, this article is worth a read. When whole articles are paywalled, inflammatory headlines aren't just clickbait, they're all that many will read so it's doubly duplicitous.

And now they're piling into the RNLI. For doing their job. Saving lives at sea.

Loved this doodle by the talented Mandy Johnson.

I'm not sure attacking a dearly-loved institution founded nearly 200 years ago, wholly funded by the public to the tune of £200 million a year, is the right way to make an anti-woke point. We used to raise money for them at my school, for goodness' sake! In fact, I can't hear their name without remembering some poor girl who very carefully and nervously paused between each letter in a speech in assembly about that month's charity flag day. (Arr...Enn...Ell...Eye)

Hopefully this nonsense will have the opposite effect with many people making donations in solidarity and the RNLI able to keep up its lifesaving work for another 200 years.

It would be laughable if it wasn't all so dangerous.

Interesting and useful links 🖇️

At least 172 out LGBTQ athletes are at the Tokyo Summer Olympics, which is triple the number in Rio.

The Dig it out campaign works with gardening and horticultural organisations, societies, individual gardeners to tackle all forms of racism and discrimination.

Operation Black Vote published the 2021 Colour of Power report which shows a quickening of the pace of change - with double the number of people from ethnic minorities in top leadership roles compared with 2017. The pace of change has increased since the BLM protests of 2020 so let's keep going!

Learning points 🎓

Don't forget there's a difference between how you feel inside and how you come across. I might look like a big brave politician but inside I feel the same uncertainty I did when I was a teenager.

Day of the Week 📆

He was younger than my mother 😢

What am I reading? 📚

I'm going to try and focus on fiction for a change this Summer.

Here's a plug for the brilliant, independent Warwick bookshop and their Summer reads.

What am I watching? 👀

Love this short film about Bristol Steppin Sistas.

"for women to be together and sharing experiences, I would encourage anyone to get up and walk"

What am I listening to? 👂

Dave, one of the most fluent politicians we've got, released his second album, We're all alone in this together.

The Financial Times called it a difficult listen. Err, yeah.

So, that's me off for a few weeks. Have a good August and see you in September.

Love, Lucy x

If it’s your first time reading this newsletter, find out more about me here.

I write this newsletter because I believe in sharing ideas that help us work towards a truly equal world, particularly in the workplace.

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ChangeOut is created by Lucy Caldicott. You can find more about my work at ChangeOut.org. If you’re looking to have a chat about culture, leadership, purpose, equity, or a facilitated team discussion about any of those things, get in touch. You can also find me on Bluesky, Instagram, and, LinkedIn.

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