Holding Up the Megaphone: Here's To The Future of GenderAvenger
My excitement over GenderAvenger joining forces with The Female Quotient is multiplied by the fact that Amber Coleman-Mortley, who has worked with GenderAvenger and contributed some of our most important and provocative blogs, will be coming to your inbox as GenderAvenger’s “Chief Avenger”. Read all about her excitement and be sure to look for Action Alerts from Amber.
—Gina Glantz, GenderAvenger Founder
Since its inception, Gina Glantz has been holding up the GenderAvenger megaphone to amplify voices in our community. Last week we announced that we’ve joined forces with The Female Quotient to champion gender equality, but what does that mean for our community? One of the best outcomes is Gina handing me the megaphone. I consider this a huge honor. I am particularly excited because it means that you and I are going to be working more closely on how we make sure that women’s voices count.
Here’s why I’m excited to partner with YOU moving forward...
My name is Amber Coleman-Mortley, and I am the Chief Avenger at GenderAvenger and Director of Program Development and Partnerships at The Female Quotient. That long title means that I sit between the work that both GenderAvenger and The Female Quotient are pursuing, bringing synergy to both organizations and their communities. I’m no stranger to the complex challenges of working across communities and intersections. I live that work every day as a Black woman working in the equality space, and I see my new role as an extension of my personal mission to make the world a better place for all women.
I joined GenderAvenger in 2018. I was drawn to the organization because it was nonpartisan, women-founded, woman-focused, and unapologetically bold about how it expressed discontent about the exclusion of women’s voices in important public conversations. Many of these conversations were, ironically, about issues that impact women the most.
From the beginning, I felt as if the GenderAvenger mission and the GenderAvenger tools — the GA Tally, the Stamp of Approval, and the Action Alert — filled an important void in how we move forward. Coupled with Gina’s dynamism and no-nonsense vibe, GenderAvenger made the advocacy around women’s issues tangible, actionable, unavoidable, and most importantly, easy to do. This was something I could get into… and I’ve stayed.
When I was brought on, I was charged with elevating our community’s issues by “fanning the flames of rage” on social media. I took my role seriously. In my mind, I was a “for-real GenderAvenger” swooping in on Twitter to provide support for women and advocates who brought their concerns to conferences, magazines, events, and political bodies. What I learned was that when women speak up, they are often discredited, dismissed, or outright ignored, and when women at the intersections of race, ability, sexuality, and income speak out, that online response is usually layered with violence.
I also learned, however, that when we build supportive and engaged communities we can move mountains, break down barriers, and overcome vast inequities with small individual contributions. A tweet, a retweet, a like, or comments that tag others in posts may take only 30 seconds, but acts like this push conference organizers to make a 180 with their speaker lineup. If we don’t speak up, if we don’t say something, the assumption is that the status quo is working and everyone is comfortable. At GenderAvenger, we know that the status quo is not working. We know that there are a lot of overlooked experts out there waiting to share their gifts and expertise with the world. We know what’s at stake if we don’t do something about it.
True representation is at the heart of the GenderAvenger mission.
Our stance on trans women, the inclusion of non-binary people in the GA Tally app, and updates that best reflect expectations more in line with demographics in the United States are examples of our efforts to ensure that women’s voices can and do count. Where many feminist movements were plagued by white supremacy culture, our team consistently worked to ensure we were providing an opportunity for all women to tell their truths.
We know that data can only reflect the problem and provide a solution if we are collecting the right information and including all of the historically ignored voices. This means that everything we do — the data reflected in tallies from the GA Tally app, the combined effort of our community of active onlookers, and even the celebration of events and conferences that get it right — works in concert to help us establish benchmarks and goals moving forward. It means telling a more inclusive and holistic narrative everywhere, all the time.
GenderAvenger understands that this work evolves.
And I have been fortunate to experience quite a few of GenderAvenger’s awesome growth moments. But GenderAvenger will always use our megaphone to elevate the concerns of our community, supporting you as you unearth the inequality around you. This organization exists because women’s voices count! So the next time you ask “where are the women?”, bring us with you! Tag us as @GenderAvenger on a social media post. Email me, your Chief Avenger Amber Coleman-Mortley, if you see a conference with good gender balance. There’s so much work to do, and I’m excited to continue this journey with you.