International Womens Day - 8th March 2017
As a woman working as a professional photographer I have been faced with many and varied challenges throughout my career. Given I work in a traditionally white middle class, male dominated industry it has been a challenge to be taken seriously as a professional photographer.
I am an educated, trained, experienced, technically capable and professional practitioner of my profession, photography. However I often encounter people who don't look at me and see a professional photographer , they look at me and see a woman first and then quite often exert their opinions or express their shock. Sometimes I am made to prove that I am capable of and sometimes even worthy of doing a great job. This doesn't happen on every job, but it happens more often than anyone would realise and quite often it is not just men who presume I am not capable of doing my job.
Photography has come a long way in terms of employing women and so have ingrained bias towards women at work, but it still has a long way to go. I will be happy when I just blend in as a professional and people no longer draw attention to my gender.
This small selection of images is to celebrate International Womens Day. It represents women I have photographed recently, business owners, mothers, workers, young and not so young, white, black, aboriginal and indigenous. All people who work very hard and have achieved a great deal and who no doubt, like myself, on a daily basis, shrug off the ingrained prejudice that comes into their daily lives when they are just trying to get on with their jobs.
Perhaps one day we will not even notice when a woman is at the helm. Right now I'm off to photograph an International Womens Day event and listen to the courageous words of a refugee from Sudan, Mariam Issa. Let's get to it ladies !!