As I sit at my laptop penning this fortnight’s edition, as it’s November 28^th and I am a female, I have already spent the last two weeks working for free.

Let me explain. You’ve probably heard of the gender pay gap. That means that a man doing the same job as a woman, can routinely expect to earn more money. Even in 2019, this gap is so pronounced, that when the pay difference is translated to money received for time worked, females work for over 6 weeks of the year, with no remuneration. November 14^th is Equal Pay Day – that’s the day each year that this issue is highlighted.

Since I started Make Me a Plan, I’ve enjoyed meeting many brilliant people of all genders and backgrounds, around the country but primarily in my home county of Cornwall.

On balance, the events I’ve been to have been really useful and enjoyable. However, as time goes on, balance has been an area of such events that has become more and more obviously an area in need of some planning expertise. It’s noticeable that guest speakers, experts and workshop hosts are male, much more than 50% of the time or 50% of the agenda.

You might have heard of the term “manels”. This is when a panel of speakers is all male, and/or not gender balanced. I believe that this is often inadvertent, but always something that should be noticed and challenged, so that women of the future don’t have to work for free for 6 weeks a year or have their contributions classed as lower value or interest than those of males.

And so a couple of months ago, I began speaking to some other ladies around Cornwall about creating a merry band of Planbassadors for a new arm to Make Me A Plan’s activities: Make Me A Planel. We believe in Planels not Manels, and that having speakers that represent society should be an inbuilt component of event planning.

We are busy working behind the scenes on launching this for International Women’s Day on March 8^th – please get in touch if you’d like to learn more and be a part of this positive step forward for the Cornish business scene.

In the meantime, as we look to our friends in Plymouth as they celebrate 100 years of the first woman in Parliament with Lady Astor Day, we use the inspiration of struggles past as fuel for the eradication of struggles future.

I’ll be musing On Parties next fortnight in a General Election meets Christmas themed special – get in touch with any particular aspects of that topic you’d like me to write about.

Happy Planning.

Anna Pascoe

Principal Planner

Make Me A Plan