Whatever you are is enough

This week it was International Women's Day. It was the day after I'd been away in London for work and I hadn't planned anything or been invited to anything. I'd planned myself some time off but couldn't help feeling I should be doing something important. It didn't help that the weather was bleak and cold.

I started looking back at photos from 8 Marches in previous years. Happy, busy Lucies from the past. I looked full of hope and positivity whereas this year, with everything going on, hope and positivity seem in short supply.

We can't always feel invincible and some of the International Women's Day messages about strength aren't necessarily that helpful. It reminds me of that language around "battling" cancer when people actually with cancer don't feel like battling anything, let alone cancer.

So, however you felt on International Women's Day*, that's enough.

Interesting and useful links 🖇️

Imagine if we designed our cities for people, not cars. This article makes the case for car-free cities.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is funding a group of organisations, which it calls Pathfinders, that are imagining radically different ways of doing things. All doing interesting work.

This is a beautifully written article about inter-generational friendships.

Learning points 🎓

for hundreds of years, the Bird of Humanity has been flying primarily with one wing, the masculine wing, causing it to become overly muscular, overdeveloped. In fact, the wing has become violent in order to keep afloat, causing the Bird of Humanity to fly in circles and keep repeating the same path of flight.

Extract from Mary Portas' speech at Women of the World festival. Full speech here.

Day of the Week 📆

The Commission on the Status of Women which is meeting at the UN this week is focusing on unequal access to technology in a digital world. Here's a statement from the UN Women's Executive Director, Sima Bahous.

What am I reading? 📚

This is a very interesting article about reimagining public services and how they are run.

What am I watching? 👀

I enjoyed Chris Packham's gentle and thoughtful documentary about autistic people, Inside our Autistic Minds. He gives a group of autistic people the opportunity to make films about their lives. It's very moving and I learned a lot.

What am I listening to? 👂

I've been listening to Complete Me - Django Django featuring Self Esteem a lot recently. I love how it could be from the late 80s but is from NOW.

Joy-giving things 😍

This film about an Aston Villa fan growing up in a Wolves house needs money to be made. Watch the trailer here (it had me at the Radio WM klaxon - IYKYK)

Have a great weekend everyone

Lucy

*And this goes for my male and non-binary readers too.

I write this newsletter because I believe in sharing progressive ideas that help us work towards a truly equal world.

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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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