As soon as I corrected them, I could always feel that shift in tone and deals that were almost done would be dropped. Having the title ‘Dr’ in my name gave me access to people who would never give me a chance, but my mentor mentioned to me that people will always look at me as a woman who just had children and think ‘how will she manage’ yet I am managing just fine.
When I left IQ4News and went back to full time academia (as a senior lecturer at Birmingham City University), I spent time reflecting on my experiences. I wanted to create a real impact. I did a lot of research for over two years and, particularly in America, I came across a lot of groups of women in content production. It wasn’t until I travelled to Johannesburg, South Africa to receive the CNN award that the idea struck me. We had a forum and the main conversation was, ‘Where are the women in media’? That very evening, in the hotel room, I put up the business plan for AWiM and I knew that, the next year, we would have a conference for AWiM.