Smashing Sexism: Creating Inclusive Workspaces
Virginia Méndez
Book a demo →from €2,250 for your whole company
Book a demo →from €2,250 for your whole company
Virginia Mendez, author of Childhood Unlimited: Parenting Beyond Gender Bias and the bilingual children’s series Mika & Lolo , is an accomplished public speaker and co-founder of The Feminist Shop, an ethical brand that promotes gender equality. With expertise in multiple languages and a strong background in law, business, and leadership, Virginia brings over eight years of corporate experience (PwC, Deloitte) and a passion for social impact.
All sessions by Virginia →Virginia Méndez’s session centers on understanding and challenging the social structures that sustain inequality. She highlights how gender roles, stereotypes, and unconscious biases shape behavior, limit opportunities, and influence how people are perceived in both personal and professional settings.
The session underscores the need for intentional inclusion and the value of diverse perspectives in creating healthier, more equitable environments. Above all, Virginia stresses that everyone has a role in dismantling sexism.
Through reflection, open dialogue, and small everyday actions, individuals and organizations can collectively build a culture that prioritizes respect, fairness, and true equality.
During the expert session, Virginia Méndez engages the audience through interactive exercises using the Mentimeter app, Q&A sessions, and live demonstrations.
Understanding the impact of societal expectations and biases on gender roles is essential for promoting inclusivity in all aspects of life.
Awareness of hidden prejudices, such as performance, attribution, likability, interruption, and affinity biases, is crucial for creating a more equal work environment where everyone's contributions are valued.
Practicing intentional listening, mentoring underrepresented groups, and advocating for fair opportunities contribute to building a workplace where individuals from all backgrounds thrive.
In this expert session, Virginia Méndez, an influential thought leader in gender equality, shares her insights on smashing sexism and fostering inclusivity in all aspects of life. The theme of the session begins with Virginia making a distinction between sex and gender, highlighting the significance of including everyone in conversations about equality.
Virginia then delves into the topic of gender stereotypes and their impact on our brains based on societal experiences. She uses examples of commonly associated words for women and men to illustrate the expectations and biases that exist in society.
Moving forward, she discusses the five unconscious biases (performance bias, attribution bias, likability bias, interruption bias, and affinity bias) that affect women in the workplace. These biases can influence how women are treated and perceived, impacting their confidence and opportunities for advancement.
The session continues with speaker discussing the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. She shares her observations on the impact of unconscious biases based on cultural affinities and its consequences for businesses.
One such bias is maternity bias, which disproportionately affects women. The speaker encourages intentional listening, supporting each other, and mentoring underrepresented groups to help build their skills and advance their careers.
Virginia then addresses the invisible labor performed by women during professional hours, such as mentoring and creating comfortable work environments, which significantly contribute to an organization's success but often go unrecognized. She encourages awareness of unconscious biases, intentional actions, and advocating for equal opportunities.
Throughout her presentation, Virginia also touches upon various topics including proving ageism in the workplace and combating toxic masculinity. She emphasizes the importance of validating others' experiences, engaging in conversations, and seeking support when dealing with challenging situations.
Virginia's presentation effectively engages the audience through the use of interactive tools like Mentimeter, encouraging active participation and open dialogue about sexism experienced or witnessed. She emphasizes the power of small actions leading to significant change and leaves the audience with a call to action, reminding us all that every interaction is an opportunity to create a better world for future generations.
No prior knowledge is assumed. It is built for a general working audience, and people who already know the subject get the research and the practical side rather than an introduction. What the hour itself covers: Virginia Méndez’s session centers on understanding and challenging the social structures that sustain inequality. She highlights how gender roles, stereotypes, and unconscious biases shape behavior, limit opportunities, and influence how people are perceived in both personal and professional settings.
It is interactive, and the block higher up on this page says exactly how for this session. Nobody has to speak up who does not want to: the chat and the polls carry most of it, and the questions can come in anonymously.
It runs 45 min / 15 min: the talk, then live questions. All you do is pick a date. We brief Virginia, produce the session, host and moderate it, run the Q&A, and send you the report within an hour of the end.
A team, a department, an employee network or every single employee at once, with no cap and no per-seat price. It runs inside your own Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Google Meet, or on a branded page we build. No integration, no login, no company device or e-mail.
The session is delivered in English. You can add high accuracy live subtitles in 8, 16 or 24 languages, so everyone follows in their own. That is a paid option, priced by the number of languages you need.
No, and that is by design. There is nothing to install, nothing to integrate and no connection to your systems, so there is nothing for IT to validate: we join your own Teams, Zoom or Meet as a guest speaker, or we host a page and your people open a link. No software, no accounts, and no data of yours that we can reach. It is why hundreds of companies, among them some of the largest technology and financial firms in the world, were able to start within a day.
We never receive or hold personal data about your employees. Because the session runs in your own environment, attendance and identity stay with you, and what we report back is aggregated: numbers, ratings and survey answers, not people. That is also why IT approval usually takes minutes rather than weeks.
You keep the recording and can share it internally. You also get attendance over time, participant ratings for the content and the speaker, the survey answers, and the topics your people asked for next.
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