MODALITY IN TED TALKS ON GENDER EQUALITY BY NATIVE AND NON NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS a SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS & CULTURES OF ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES GRADUATION PAPER MODALITY IN TED TALKS ON GENDER EQUALITY BY NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS: A SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS Supervisor: Trương Thị Ánh, M.A Student: Cao Thị Bảo Ngọc Course: QH2017.F1.E2 HÀ NỘI – 2021 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA NGƠN NGỮ VÀ VĂN HĨA CÁC NƯỚC NĨI TIẾNG ANH KHĨA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP TÌNH THÁI TRONG CÁC BÀI DIỄN THUYẾT TEDTALKS VỀ BÌNH ĐẲNG GIỚI CỦA NGƯỜI BẢN NGỮ VÀ NGƯỜI KHÔNG PHẢI NGƯỜI BẢN NGỮ TIẾNG ANH: PHÂN TÍCH NGỮ PHÁP CHỨC NĂNG HỆ THỐNG Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Th.S Trương Thị Ánh Sinh viên: Cao Thị Bảo Ngọc Khóa: QH2017.F1.E2 HÀ NỘI – 2021 ACCEPTANCE PAGE I hereby state that I: Cao Thi Bao Ngoc, QH2017.F1.E2, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (Fast-track programme) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature Ha Noi, May 4th 2021 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all of those who made this paper possible First and foremost, I am immensely grateful towards all ULIS lecturers who always support and encourage me throughout my journey at ULIS with their expertise and invaluable personal experience My inferiority complex has always been a burden in my learning, but with their constant appreciation, I become more confident in my ability, gain profound knowledge of different aspects and become a better version of myself They are the reason why I really enjoy my time here with wonderful memories Secondly, I want to express my heartfelt thankfulness to Ms Truong Thi Anh for accepting to be my supervisor I would not have been able to complete my thesis without her continuous guidance and constructive comments throughout the conduct of this paper Her suggestions are of great help whenever I find myself in confusion I am extremely appreciative of her tolerance even when I pose a lot of inquiries and sometimes slack off in my progress Thirdly, I would also want to express my appreciation to my family members They have been my solid backing who I can lean on for mental support to overcome all the adversities along the way They respect all my decisions and support me at their best Furthermore, to all of my beloved friends, I would like to acknowledge with sincere thanks their existence in my life They all comprise an important part of my youth My gratitude to my research team, Ha Trang, Khanh Huyen and Thu Trang, who stay with me as teammates, as best friends, who can share with me all the concerns and urge each other to strive for the best I also want to thank Thu Trang and Tam Nguyen for their advice on my topic whenever I not understand something Moreover, my special friends, Dong Linh, Ngan Ha, Hai Ha, Cam Ha, Phuong Nhung, Quynh Mai, Quynh Anh and Khanh Hoa, they have patiently listened to my grumbles because of stress, lifted my mood and i encouraged me all the time, for which I am profoundly grateful Without them, I would have given up midway Finally, I greatly value the spiritual strength that I gain from my idols, especially Wanna One members and Chuang trainees They are my inspirational role models when it comes to a never-giving-up spirit Thanks to them, I learn to put enormous effort in everything I They are also my source of delight during the time I feel stuck accomplishing this paper ii ABSTRACT Modality, which is a rather complicated concept, functions importantly in the formation of arguments in both spoken and written discourse; therefore, it needs to be thoroughly investigated However, academic research concerning modality system and the comparison between the utilization of modality in speeches by native and non-native English speakers has been relatively limited in number Consequently, this study was conducted to discover the modality system regarding type, value and orientation which was applied by both native and non-native English speakers in 10 speeches of TEDTalks on gender equality The analytical framework was based on Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics Moreover, purposive sample, quantitative, and qualitative approaches were used to analyze the data The results revealed that modality was realized in all four sub-types, especially probability and obligation Moreover, three scales in value and four aspects in orientation could be seen in the chosen speeches Both the native and non-native English speakers share the similarities in favoring probability, median value, and implicit subjective orientation However, the non-native English speakers employed more inclination as well as high and low value modality expressions than the natives did Additionally, the natives were more explicit and more objective in their propositions than the nonnatives Especially, the natives utilized a wide range of modality markers, while the non-natives mostly made use of modal auxiliaries The study yields useful pedagogical implications for applying modality efficiently in oral presentations Keywords: TEDTalks, gender equality, modality, native speakers, nonnative speakers iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims and research questions 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Methods of the study 1.6 An overview of the rest of the paper CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Systemic Functional Grammar 2.2 Modality 2.2.1 Modality and Polarity 2.2.2 Types of modality 2.2.3 Value of modality 2.2.4 Orientation of modality 2.2.5 Realization of modality 10 2.3 Native and non-native English speakers 14 2.4 Previous studies on modality 15 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 20 3.1 Data description 20 3.2 Data collection 21 3.3 Data analysis method 23 3.4 Data analysis procedure 26 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 27 4.1 Research question 1: Modality realization in terms of type, value, and orientation 27 4.1.1 Type 27 iv 4.1.2 Value 31 4.1.3 Orientation 33 4.2 Research question 2: Similarities and differences in the use of modality between native speakers (NS) and non-native speakers (NNS) of English 35 4.3 Discussion 41 4.3.1 Modality realization 41 4.3.2 Similarities and differences in modality usage between NS and NNS of English 44 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 47 Summary 47 Implications 48 Limitations and suggestions for further study 49 REFERENCES 51 APPENDIX 60 v LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS Table 2.1 The basic speech roles Table 2.2 Values of modality Table 2.3 Modality: examples of type and orientation combined 10 Table 2.4 Modal operators 11 Table 2.5 Modal adjuncts 11 Table 2.6 Types of modality and their typical realizations 13 Table 2.7 Expressions of probability 14 Table 3.1 Analytical framework (Modalization) 24 Table 3.2 Analytical framework (Modulation) 25 Table 4.1 Distribution of each type of modality 27 Table 4.2 Distribution of modal value 31 Table 4.3 Distribution of modal value according to type 31 Table 4.4 Distribution of each type of modality orientation 33 Table 4.5 Distribution of modality orientation according to type 34 Table 4.6 Comparison of modality sub-type between NS and NNS 35 Table 4.7.1 Comparison of modality value between NS and NNS 37 Table 4.7.2 Comparison of modality value according to sub-types between Table 4.8 NS and NNS 38 Comparison of modality orientation between NS and NNS 39 Figure 2.1 Types of modality Figure 3.1 Modality system 23 Figure 4.1 Comparison of the percentage of modality sub-types in each corpus between NS and NNS 36 Figure 4.2 Comparison of the percentage of modality value in each corpus between NS and NNS 37 Figure 4.3 Comparison of the percentage of modality orientation in each corpus between NS and NNS vi 40 NNS: Non-native speakers of English NS: Native speakers of English SFL: Systemic functional linguistics vii Modulation Type Obligation Inclination Subjective Objective Subjective Objective Orientation Explicit High Value Implicit Explicit Implicit Explicit Implicit Have to (1) Have to (2) Not have to (1) Not have to (1) Explicit Implicit Median Low NNS – 05 Stop fighting for feminism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5mionzBMlA&ab_channel=TEDxTalks When I was a teenager, I had my first boyfriend He made a statement very clear from the first day that we dated, “No one can give you a ride home except me.” After that, he beat me four times in three years we were together When we broke up, he still said, “No one could ever love you, as much as I do.” I kind of believed it too, you know, at least no one beat me that hard Later on, when I was still young and beautiful, there was a guy flirting and chasing me for months, sending me gifts One day, he gave me a call, “I quit! I don’t think you like boys.” When I was pregnant, people asked my friend, “What? We thought she was a lesbian!” And then they found out that I’m a single mom And they’re like, “Ahh! Yes! She’s a lesbian.” When I did my first casting for my TV host job in Vietnam TV, I did it pretty well, they called me and said, “You passed.” – Yayy! – “Now you can become our writer.” I was like, ” What?” Because your hair’s too short and your skin is too dark for being on TV But then three years after, after working very hard, I got my first talk show and they shut down my talk show for three months because I wore a nose pin When I was writing my first book, a publisher came to me and said, “We only can publish your book if you change one detail in the first chapter.” So in that chapter, the character had sex for the first time when she was 17 “Can you make it, 18?” So that’s the story of my life and you know at the end I’ve still become a TV host, I’m still a single mom, I still have a boyfriend, clearly, not a lesbian at all and I still published my first book But that draftily tells you a life of a Vietnamese women in Vietnam Sometimes you have to accept to be beaten by your boyfriend, you have to fall for anyone that’s rich, good-looking and go after you You cannot have sex when you’re under 18 You cannot have a nose pin, dark skin or short hair So simply you cannot look too different But that’s just the first layer, there’s so many things under it There was a time I worked as a Vietnam ambassador for walk free in New York about human trafficking, raise awareness to stop human trafficking And I interviewed few girls who are the victims of human trafficking So human trafficking means that you got sold by someone you know to China to become some stranger’s wife, to become sex slave And then they’ve been fighting very very hard to get out of their prison And you know what, after years finally they made it home to Vietnam They met their parents and their own parents abandoned them They insult them for being such a bad daughter, being away from home for so long And you know what is even funnier, if they walk around their village, they might bump into the guy that tricked them and sold them to China before, but couldn’t anything about it Because in Vietnam if you stole a chicken and sold it, people might put you in jail, but if you tricked a girl and sold her, there’s no law yet And sometimes, they have to stand to be sent to some shelter just to learn some skill, to get back to the community as a normal girl So imagine what they’ve been through And I really admire them for doing all that it’s been many years, many centuries, and the history has an amazing example for you I’m just a tiny person in Vietnam, and what I did is very tiny I know there’s a bigger scale than that But go back to the talk today Nowadays, I felt like feminism’s become a trend, and this trend is overrated So, here’s the media world, and you will see all the faces, all the feminists, that they try to build these days in those superstar, all pop stars I got a chance to interview, Demi Lovato and Katy Perry And they’re such soft women There’s a time they have to be in rehab, very hard to get back to their real life 68 And there’s time they felt they’re so chubby and they have to exercise a lot to get back to the image people used to see them And Katy Perry, when she was in Vietnam, she was clumsy because she couldn’t find a good word to give a speech So all that moments, but without being very close to them, there’s no way you could see All you see is this: the feminism, strong women Media built such a strong image of the new women And now everything is overrated, if you look tough – you’re a feminist, if you’re successful in your career – you’re feminist If you’re not married yet, you’re feminist or maybe something is wrong with you And then people like me suddenly become a role model for young women They’d come to me and say “Thuy Minh – I want to be like you, I want to be strong, I want to be successful, I want to travel the world, I want to become a single mom like you.” You know I became a single mom, not because I wanted to give a statement of my own love life that I don’t need men No! I became a single mom because that’s the only choice I had at that time I didn’t get married with the father of my son, because I’m not in love with him anymore I know nowadays, many Vietnamese girls get pressured from the society and family that they have to choose a certain career path They have to get married at a certain age They have to have a child at a certain age, spend a certain time with their family But then I think men get the same pressure Are there many men here? Do you have pressures to have a career path, get married and have children? It’s not that women have the pressure, everyone can get that pressure So go back, I’m sorry if you hurry and settle down with some wrong partner It’s your fault, it’s not because you’re a woman in Vietnam No! Because go back to my life, I did everything for myself, not only because I’m a woman, but let’s say you’re a strong woman already, and you want to fight for feminism You want to become a feminist, and you try to show to the world, as the pop stars that you watch in media You want to show that you can travel the world, you’re successful You can anything without a man You can fix your car But let’s say if you’re very successful in your fight, then where you’re going to be There’re only scripts for feminists You would end up alone because that’s what you ask for You don’t need a man or you don’t need a woman I think that’s pretty sad, all of us need someone Even the strongest man or woman would love to have somebody next to them And I think it’s pretty sad if you end up just by yourself, because you keep giving a statement for your whole life that you’re independent and you don’t need anyone The second script is you try to punish men and then force men to go through what you’ve been through Have you heard of Mensiety? Anyone, have you heard of Mensiety? So it’s when men feel very anxious because around them there’re so many suddenly so many powerful, independent women So he worries, like, “One day I’m going to lose my own power.” Anyone of you ever get through this feeling? Good! Good! Because deep down honestly I believe a real man, shouldn’t be thinking that way, shouldn’t look at women as the threat That’s very different from women because women think any men’s problems are for men But men, I don’t think they care much about feminist or you know how strong, because they would love that, but let’s see one day, the world is flipped Our men suddenly don’t have to go to work anymore I think they’ll love it I just heard the man and he brings that idea of doing nothing for 10 minutes I’m sorry but that’s a men’s world Men have a box in their brains, the empty box Women cannot that, when we nothing, we paint our nails, we’re thinking about what to next, who to call to talk to We don’t nothing, so I think men would love there’s a world that they can stay home, put some toys to the kids, play games all day, watch TV and then wash dishes when the wife came home So, but for me as a woman, I don’t like to see that scene It’s a little bit silly for me If I go home, I see my man washing dishes And then I have to go out and fix our car I don’t think that’s the script any women wants And feminists, I don’t think you’d feel happier with that scene Are you happier? OK! In that case, this morning I was surprised I’m not going to point out the person who that is I just know a couple who are the ambassadors, and the lady, just yesterday – and they said they would attend the TED talk They talked to each other; they said only one of them could attend the talk And the first thing in my mind is, of course, this ambassador, of course, the man is going to be at the talk and the lady is going to stay at home and take care of the kids And then who came up today? The lady! So just a little example to say that there’s many things that could change and many different concepts but at the same time I’d like to say, if you want to become a feminist, that’s your choice If you don’t want to become a feminist, that’s your choice too But make sure that’s your choice! Look back at my life a little bit, the other day my boyfriend said, “I think you should spend more time with your kids.” I was very sad, very pissed and I came up to him and said, “I’m sorry, I’m a mom to my son but at the same time I’m the man in the family And at the same time I’m myself, I need my morning coffee, I need my little alone time.” Sometimes I could travel by myself but that’s mean, and I don’t want that conflict with a man, mother or a father, a man who work everyday So be anyone that you want to be I think there’s no definition that you should become or the media lead you to be Can be strong, can be feminist but make sure, that’s you And as a woman I think the most powerful woman is someone know that you’re soft, know that you’re weak, know that sometimes you need somebody around you, know that you can cry and show your emotion One line, one sentence I really like “The secret of happiness is no secret! So be happy, be yourself!” Thank you 69 Modalization Type Probability Orientation High Value Median Subjective Explicit Objective Implicit I believe (1), I know (2) I don’t think (4), I think (7) Usuality Explicit Subjective Implicit Explicit Objective Implicit Explicit Will (2), would (7) Maybe (1) Might (2), can (11), could (5) Low Implicit Can’t (4), couldn’t (2) Sometimes (4) Modulation Type Obligation Inclination Subjective Objective Subjective Objective Orientation Explicit Value Implicit High Have to (8) Median Shouldn’t (2), should (2) Low Not have to (1) Explicit Implicit Explicit Implicit Explicit Implicit Have to (1) NS – 01 Why Gender Equality Is Good for Everyone — Men Included https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n9IOH0NvyY&t=87s&ab_channel=TED I'm here to recruit men to support gender equality Wait, wait What? What men have to with gender equality? Gender equality is about women, right? I mean, the word gender is about women Actually, I'm even here speaking as a middle class white man Now, I wasn't always a middle class white man It all happened for me about 30 years ago when I was in graduate school, and a bunch of us graduate students got together one day, and we said, you know, there's an explosion of writing and thinking in feminist theory, but there's no courses yet So we did what graduate students typically in a situation like that We said, OK, let's have a study group We'll read a text, we'll talk about it, we'll have a potluck dinner So every week, 11 women and me got together We would read some text in feminist theory and have a conversation about it And during one of our conversations, I witnessed an interaction that changed my life forever It was a conversation between two women One of the women was white, and one was black And the white woman said this is going to sound very anachronistic now the white woman said, "All women face the same oppression as women All women are similarly situated in patriarchy, and therefore all women have a kind of intuitive solidarity or sisterhood." And the black woman said, "I'm not so sure Let me ask you a question." So the black woman says to the white woman, "When you wake up in the morning and you look in the mirror, what you see?" And the white woman said, "I see a woman." And the black woman said, "You see, that's the problem for me Because when I wake up in the morning and I look in the mirror," she said, "I see a black woman To me, race is visible But to you, race is invisible You don't see it." And then she said something really startling She said, "That's how privilege works Privilege is invisible to those who have it." It is a luxury, I will say to the white people sitting in this room, not to have to think about race every split second of our lives Privilege is invisible to those who have it 70 Now remember, I was the only man in this group, so when I witnessed this, I went, "Oh no." And somebody said, "Well what was that reaction?" And I said, "Well, when I wake up in the morning and I look in the mirror, I see a human being I'm kind of the generic person You know, I'm a middle class white man I have no race, no class, no gender I'm universally generalizable." So I like to think that was the moment I became a middle class white man, that class and race and gender were not about other people, they were about me I had to start thinking about them, and it had been privilege that had kept it invisible to me for so long Now, I wish I could tell you this story ends 30 years ago in that little discussion group, but I was reminded of it quite recently at my university where I teach I have a colleague, and she and I both teach the sociology of gender course on alternate semesters So she gives a guest lecture for me when I teach I give a guest lecture for her when she teaches So I walk into her class to give a guest lecture, about 300 students in the room, and as I walk in, one of the students looks up and says, "Oh, finally, an objective opinion." All that semester, whenever my colleague opened her mouth, what my students saw was a woman I mean, if you were to say to my students, "There is structural inequality based on gender in the United States," they'd say, "Well of course you'd say that You're a woman You're biased." When I say it, they go, "Wow, is that interesting Is that going to be on the test? How you spell 'structural'?" So I hope you all can see, this is what objectivity looks like Disembodied Western rationality And that, by the way, is why I think men so often wear ties Because if you are going to embody disembodied Western rationality, you need a signifier, and what could be a better signifier of disembodied Western rationality than a garment that at one end is a noose and the other end points to the genitals? That is mind-body dualism right there So making gender visible to men is the first step to engaging men to support gender equality Now, when men first hear about gender equality, when they first start thinking about it, they often think, many men think, well, that's right, that's fair, that's just, that's the ethical imperative But not all men Some men think the lightning bolt goes off, and they go, "Oh my God, yes, gender equality," and they will immediately begin to mansplain to you your oppression They see supporting gender equality something akin to the cavalry, like, "Thanks very much for bringing this to our attention, ladies, we'll take it from here." This results in a syndrome that I like to call 'premature self-congratulation.' There's another group, though, that actively resists gender equality that sees gender equality as something that is detrimental to men I was on a TV talk show opposite four white men This is the beginning of the book I wrote, 'Angry White Men.' These were four angry white men who believed that they, white men in America, were the victims of reverse discrimination in the workplace And they all told stories about how they were qualified for jobs, qualified for promotions, they didn't get them, they were really angry And the reason I'm telling you this is I want you to hear the title of this particular show It was a quote from one of the men, and the quote was, "A Black Woman Stole My Job." And they all told their stories, qualified for jobs, qualified for promotions, didn't get it, really angry And then it was my turn to speak, and I said, "I have just one question for you guys, and it's about the title of the show, 'A Black Woman Stole My Job.' Actually, it's about one word in the title I want to know about the word 'my.' Where did you get the idea it was your job? Why isn't the title of the show, 'A Black Woman Got the Job?' or 'A Black Woman Got A Job?'" Because without confronting men's sense of entitlement, I don't think we'll ever understand why so many men resist gender equality Look, we think this is a level playing field, so any policy that tilts it even a little bit, we think, "Oh my God, water's rushing uphill It's reverse discrimination against us." So let me be very clear: white men in Europe and the United States are the beneficiaries of the single greatest affirmative action program in the history of the world It is called "the history of the world." So, now I've established some of the obstacles to engaging men, but why should we support gender equality? Of course, it's fair, it's right and it's just But more than that, gender equality is also in our interest as men If you listen to what men say about what they want in their lives, gender equality is actually a way for us to get the lives we want to live Gender equality is good for countries It turns out, according to most studies, that those countries that are the most gender equal are also the countries that score highest on the happiness scale And that's not just because they're all in Europe Even within Europe, those countries that are more gender equal also have the highest levels of happiness It is also good for companies Research by Catalyst and others has shown conclusively that the more gender-equal companies are, the better it is for workers, the happier their labor force is They have lower job turnover They have lower levels of attrition They have an easier time recruiting They have higher rates of retention, higher job satisfaction, higher rates of productivity So the question I'm often asked in companies is, "Boy, this gender equality thing, that's really going to be expensive, huh?" And I say, "Oh no, in fact, what you have to start calculating is how much gender inequality is already costing you It is extremely expensive." So it is good for business And the other thing is, it's good for men It is good for the kind of lives we want to live, because young men especially have changed enormously, and they want to have lives that are animated by terrific relationships with their children They expect their partners, their spouses, their wives, to work outside the home and be just as committed to their careers as they are I was talking, to give you an illustration of this change Some of you may remember this When I was a lot younger, there was a riddle that was posed to us Some of you may wince to remember this riddle This riddle went something like this A man and his son are driving on the freeway, and they're in a terrible accident, and the father is killed, and the son is brought to the hospital emergency room, and as they're bringing the son into the hospital emergency room, the emergency room attending physician sees the boy and says, "Oh, I can't treat him, that's my son." How is this possible? We were flummoxed by this We could not figure this out 71 Well, I decided to a little experiment with my 16-year old son He had a bunch of his friends hanging out at the house watching a game on TV recently So I decided I would pose this riddle to them, just to see, to gauge the level of change Well, 16-year-old boys, they immediately turned to me and said, "It's his mom." Right? No problem Just like that Except for my son, who said, "Well, he could have two dads." That's an index, an indicator of how things have changed Younger men today expect to be able to balance work and family They want to be dual-career couples They want to be able to balance work and family with their partners They want to be involved fathers Now, it turns out that the more egalitarian our relationships, the happier both partners are Data from psychologists and sociologists are quite persuasive here I think we have the persuasive numbers, the data, to prove to men that gender equality is not a zero-sum game, but a win-win Here's what the data show Now, when men begin the process of engaging with balancing work and family, we often have two phrases that we use to describe what we We pitch in and we help out And I'm going to propose something a little bit more radical, one word: "share." Because here's what the data show: when men share housework and childcare, their children better in school Their children have lower rates of absenteeism, higher rates of achievement They are less likely to be diagnosed with ADHD They are less likely to see a child psychiatrist They are less likely to be put on medication So when men share housework and childcare, their children are happier and healthier, and men want this When men share housework and childcare, their wives are happier Duh Not only that, their wives are healthier Their wives are less likely to see a therapist, less likely to be diagnosed with depression, less likely to be put on medication, more likely to go to the gym, report higher levels of marital satisfaction So when men share housework and childcare, their wives are happier and healthier, and men certainly want this as well When men share housework and childcare, the men are healthier They smoke less, drink less, take recreational drugs less often They are less likely to go to the ER but more likely to go to a doctor for routine screenings They are less likely to see a therapist, less likely to be diagnosed with depression, less likely to be taking prescription medication So when men share housework and childcare, the men are happier and healthier And who wouldn't want that? And finally, when men share housework and childcare, they have more sex Now, of these four fascinating findings, which one you think Men's Health magazine put on its cover? "Housework Makes Her Horny (Not When She Does It.)" Now, I will say, just to remind the men in the audience, these data were collected over a really long period of time, so I don't want listeners to say, "Hmm, OK, I think I'll the dishes tonight." These data were collected over a really long period of time But I think it shows something important, that when Men's Health magazine put it on their cover, they also called, you'll love this, "Choreplay." So, what we found is something really important, that gender equality is in the interest of countries, of companies, and of men, and their children and their partners, that gender equality is not a zero-sum game It's not a win-lose It is a win-win for everyone And what we also know is we cannot fully empower women and girls unless we engage boys and men We know this And my position is that men need the very things that women have identified that they need to live the lives they say they want to live in order to live the lives that we say we want to live In 1915, on the eve of one of the great suffrage demonstrations down Fifth Avenue in New York City, a writer in New York wrote an article in a magazine, and the title of the article was, "Feminism for Men." And this was the first line of that article: "Feminism will make it possible for the first time for men to be free." Thank you Modalization Type Probability Subjective Usuality Objective Subjective Objective Orientation Explicit Median Low Explicit Implicit Can’t (2), could not (1) High Value Implicit I don’t think (1), We think (2), I think (4) Will (4), would (2), wouldn’t (1) Certainly (1) Be likely to (12) Could (3), can (1), may (2), be able to (1) 72 Explicit Implicit Explicit Implicit Always (1), so often (1) Often (4) Modulation Type Obligation Inclination Subjective Objective Subjective Objective Orientation Explicit Value Implicit High Have to (2) Median Should (1), need to (1) Low Not have to (1) Explicit Implicit Explicit Implicit Explicit Implicit I will (3), we will (4), I would (1), We would (1) NS – 02 How empowering women can help stop global warming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXlJEcrinwg&t=17s&ab_channel=TED There are two powerful phenomena unfolding on earth: the rise of global warming and the rise of women and girls The link between them is often overlooked, but gender equity is a key answer to our planetary challenge Let me explain For the last few years, I have been working on an effort called "Project Drawdown." Our team has scoured humanity's wisdom for solutions to draw down heat-trapping, climate-changing emissions in the atmosphere not "someday, maybe, if we're lucky" solutions, the 80 best practices and technologies already in hand: clean, renewable energy, including solar and wind; green buildings, both new and retrofitted; efficient transportation from Brazil to China; thriving ecosystems through protection and restoration; reducing waste and reclaiming its value; growing food in good ways that regenerates soil; shifting diets to less meat, more plants; and equity for women and girls Gender and climate are inextricably linked Drawing down emissions depends on rising up First, a bit of context We are in a situation of urgency, severity and scope never before faced by humankind So far, our response isn't anywhere close to adequate But you already know that You know it in your gut, in your bones We are each part of the planet's living systems, knitted together with almost 7.7 billion human beings and 1.8 million known species We can feel the connections between us We can feel the brokenness and the closing window to heal it This earth, our home, is telling us that a better way of being must emerge, and fast In my experience, to have eyes wide open is to hold a broken heart every day It's a grief that I rarely speak, though my work calls on the power of voice I remind myself that the heart can simply break, or it can break open A broken-open heart is awake and alive and calls for action It is regenerative, like nature, reclaiming ruined ground, growing anew Life moves inexorably toward more life, toward healing, toward wholeness That's a fundamental ecological truth And we, all of us, we are life force On the face of it, the primary link between women, girls and a warming world is not life but death Awareness is growing that climate impacts hit women and girls hardest, given existing vulnerabilities There is greater risk of displacement, higher odds of being injured or killed during a natural disaster Prolonged drought can precipitate early marriage as families contend with scarcity Floods can force last-resort prostitution as women struggle to make ends meet The list goes on and goes wide These dynamics are most acute under conditions of poverty, from New Orleans to Nairobi Too often, the story ends here But not today Another empowering truth begs to be seen If we gain ground on gender equity, we also gain ground on addressing global warming This connection comes to light in three key areas, three areas where we can secure the rights of women and girls, shore up resilience and avert emissions at the same time Women are the primary farmers of the world They produce 60 to 80 percent of food in lower-income countries, often operating on fewer than five acres That's what the term "smallholder" means Compared with men, women smallholders have less access to resources, including land rights, credit and capital, training, tools and technology They farm as capably and efficiently as men, but this well-documented disparity in resources and rights means women produce less food on the same amount of land Close those gaps, and farm yields rise by 20 to 30 percent That means 20 to 30 percent more food from the same garden or the same field The implications for hunger, for health, for household income they're obvious Let's follow the thread to climate We humans need land to grow food Unfortunately, forests are often cleared to supply it, and that causes emissions from deforestation But if existing farms produce enough food, forests are less likely to be lost So there's a ripple effect Support women smallholders, realize higher yields, avoid deforestation and sustain the life-giving power of forests Project Drawdown 73 estimates that addressing inequity in agriculture could prevent two billion tons of emissions between now and 2050 That's on par with the impact household recycling can have globally Addressing this inequity can also help women cope with the challenges of growing food as the climate changes There is life force in cultivation At last count, 130 million girls are still denied their basic right to attend school Gaps are greatest in secondary school classrooms Too many girls are missing a vital foundation for life Education means better health for women and their children, better financial security, greater agency at home and in society, more capacity to navigate a climate-changing world Education can mean options, adaptability, strength It can also mean lower emissions For a variety of reasons, when we have more years of education, we typically choose to marry later and to have fewer children So our families end up being smaller What happens at the individual level adds up across the world and over time One by one by one, the right to go to school impacts how many human beings live on this planet and impacts its living systems That's not why girls should be educated It's one meaningful outcome Education is one side of a coin The other is family planning: access to high-quality, voluntary reproductive health care To have children by choice rather than chance is a matter of autonomy and dignity Yet in the US, 45 percent of pregnancies are unintended Two hundred and fourteen million women in lower-income countries say they want to decide whether and when to become pregnant but aren't using contraception Listening to women's needs, addressing those needs, advancing equity and well-being: those must be the aims of family planning, period Curbing the growth of our human population is a side effect, though a potent one It could dramatically reduce demand for food, transportation, electricity, buildings, goods and all the rest, thereby reducing emissions Close the gaps on access to education and family planning, and by mid-century, we may find one billion fewer people inhabiting earth than we would if we nothing more According to Project Drawdown, one billion fewer people could mean we avoid nearly 120 billion tons of emissions At that level of impact, gender equity is a top solution to restore a climate fit for life At that level of impact, gender equity is on par with wind turbines and solar panels and forests There is life force in learning and life force in choice Now, let me be clear: this does not mean women and girls are responsible for fixing everything Though we probably will Equity for women in agriculture, education and family planning: these are solutions within a system of drawdown solutions Together, they comprise a blueprint of possibility And let me be even clearer about this: population cannot be seen in isolation from production or consumption Some segments of the human family cause exponentially greater harm, while others suffer outsized injustice The most affluent we are the most accountable We have the most to The gender-climate connection extends beyond negative impacts and beyond powerful solutions Women are vital voices and agents for change on this planet, and yet we're too often missing or even barred from the proverbial table We're too often ignored or silenced when we speak We are too often passed over when plans are laid or investments made According to one analysis, just 0.2 percent of philanthropic funds go specifically towards women and the environment, merely 110 million dollars globally, the sum spent by one man on a single Basquiat painting last year These dynamics are not only unjust, they are setting us up for failure To rapidly, radically reshape society, we need every solution and every solver, every mind, every bit of heart, every set of hands We often crave a simple call to action, but this challenge demands more than a fact sheet and more than a checklist We need to function more like an ecosystem, finding strength in our diversity You know what your superpowers are You're an educator, farmer, healer, creator, campaigner, wisdom-keeper How might you link arms where you are to move solutions forward? There is one role I want to ask that all of you play: the role of messenger This is a time of great awakening We need to break the silence around the condition of our planet; move beyond manufactured debates about climate science; share solutions; speak truth with a broken-open heart; teach that to address climate change, we must make gender equity a reality And in the face of a seemingly impossible challenge, women and girls are a fierce source of possibility It is a magnificent thing to be alive in a moment that matters so much This earth, our home, is calling for us to be bold, reminding us we are all in this together women, men, people of all gender identities, all beings We are life force, one earth, one chance Let's seize it Thank you Modalization Type Probability Orientation High Value Subjective Explicit Objective Implicit Explicit Subjective Implicit Cannot (1) Explicit Objective Implicit Explicit Implicit Too often (3) Be likely to (1) Median Low Usuality Probably will (1) Can (11), could (3), may (1), might (1) Often (4) Rarely (1) 74 Modulation Type Obligation Inclination Subjective Objective Subjective Objective Orientation Explicit Value Implicit High Must (3) Median Should (1), need to (2) Explicit Implicit Explicit Implicit Explicit Implicit Low NS – 03 How to design gender bias out of your workplace https://www.ted.com/talks/sara_sanford_how_to_design_gender_bias_out_of_your_workplace/transcript?language=en#t-52799 A few years ago, I had a corporate feminist dream job Launching a company's national initiative to recruit more female employees In the finance sector But first, I had to get the signed-off support of all department heads So I spent months perfecting the proposal, presented it and won the support of almost everyone But in this team, there were two men we'll call Howard and Tom Howard just would not get back to me I emailed him about the proposal, I left him voice mails, I'd roll my chair back and forth during meetings, trying to make eye contact with Howard He'd just take out his phone and start scrolling And then I started to question myself Had I been diplomatic enough in that email? Too demanding in that voice mail? Does Howard hate this proposal or am I just overreacting? It's probably just me, I thought And then one day, I'm walking down the hall and here comes Howard He's holding a packet of papers, sees me and lights up He says, "Sara, Tom just emailed this to me, you should take a look It's a proposal for us to recruit more women." "I think Tom has a really great idea here, and we should all get behind it." Howard proceeds to hand my own proposal back to me And explains to me the many merits of what I wrote Howard was never against recruiting more women But he needed to hear from a man why it was important to hire more women And as this scene played out, I said nothing Because I knew somehow that I was a guest in a place that wasn't meant for me And so instead of questioning my environment, I questioned myself I wanted to know how so many talented women who worked long hours and started their careers with confidence all became trained in this kind of self-doubt that makes them say, "It's probably just me." How was that still possible? Aren't things getting better? Opportunities for women have increased over the last 50 years But over the last decade, progress has stalled Experts have previously identified 2059 as the year the wage gap would close But in September of this year, these same experts announced that according to the most current data, we'll have to adjust our expectations to the year 2119 One hundred one years from now Looking beyond the wage gap, women are still underrepresented in leadership, receive less access to senior leaders and are leaving the fastest-growing sectors, such as tech, at 45 percent higher rates than men, citing culture as the primary reason So what have we been doing to address gender inequality? Why isn't it working? Many businesses think they're addressing the problem, because they provide training Eight billion dollars worth of training a year, according to studies from the "Harvard Business Review." These same studies also conclude that these trainings don't work and often backfire Research tracking the hiring and promotion practices of 830 companies over the course of 30 years found that white men who are asked to go to diversity trainings tend to rebel by hiring and promoting fewer women and fewer minorities The other solution has been to ask women to change their own behavior To lean in To sit at the table Negotiate as often as men Oh, and get more training Women currently earn the majority of college degrees, outperform their peers in key leadership skills and are running businesses that outperform the competition It doesn't look like education or skills or business acumen are the problem We're already empowered Enough to make an impact on the businesses that are ready These approaches fail to address the key systemic problem: Unconscious bias 75 We all have bias, it's OK It's lodged in our amygdala, it keeps ticking away when we go to work Bias affects how much I like you, what I believe you're capable of and even how much space I think you take up Thanks in part to the Me Too movement, awareness of gender bias has spread But the harassment stories that made headlines are just one piece You don't have to harass a woman to limit her career The messages women send me aren't about being harassed They're being tolerated in the workplace But they're not being valued I don't know anyone who has ever said, "You know what I love about my employer? They just tolerate me so well, I feel so tolerated." To break the inertia, we need to take a step beyond Me Too Beyond just being tolerated as women Our organization decided to tackle the problem in two ways First, if we're all biased, our workplaces need to be actively antibiased by design, not by trying to change mindsets one training at a time So our team began by identifying over 100 cultural levers that can be adjusted to counter the impact of bias We found that small tweaks can lead to big changes And they cost a lot less than eight billion dollars So what these small tweaks look like? If a woman is asked to state her gender before filling out a job application, or performing a skills-related test, she performs worse than if she were not asked first So how can businesses avoid activating this self-stereotyping bias? Move the gender check box to the end of the application Example two In a national survey that we conducted, men were 50 percent more likely to state they had received multiple, frequent evaluations over the course of the last year As opposed to one single yearly review Here's why this matters "Fortune" magazine reviewed performance evals across industries And found that criticism like this related to personality, ["Watch your tone!"] but not job-related skills, appeared in 71 of the 94 yearly reviews received by women Of the 83 reviews received by men, personality criticism showed up twice But in businesses that conduct much shorter, highly frequent reviews, say, five-minute weekly evaluations focused on specific projects, the personality criticism vanishes And the perceived performance gap between men and women is nearly nonexistent While yearly reviews rely on overall impressions, which are like petri dishes for bias, short, objectively focused evaluations eliminate this feelings-based gray area Now, some businesses are consciously taking these steps to counter the impact of bias, while others just a good job of advertising We wanted to find out who is actually getting it right So we put a poll on Facebook, we asked women in workshops how they were choosing employers where they would be valued The most common response that we heard? "I Google it." So we googled it Specifically, we googled "best employers for women in tech." Our results showed three completely different lists One business shows up as the top employer on one list, doesn't show up at all on another, some lists offer no criteria and some are purchased ads They're paid for Employees and employers both want clear benchmarks that go beyond good intentions The LEED certification gave businesses this clarity around environmental stewardship by outlining the exact steps they need to take for certification We wanted businesses to have this kind of playbook for gender equity So for our second act, we took what we had learned from testing these cultural levers, we partnered with the University of Washington and created the first standardized certification for gender equity in US businesses Thank you To create this standard, we had to learn what matters and what doesn't We found out that what matters is not the total percentage of female employees Or the number of board members that are female Those are what we call vanity metrics They can be bought, while the culture inside can still be out of balance The factors that matter and that should be measured are under the surface For example, even in organizations where equal percentages of women and men state that they have had access to a mentor, men's mentors are more likely to be in senior positions Reviewing our survey results, men were twice as likely to state they had been offered an opportunity to shadow someone in a senior role We're all used to hearing about the wage gap Hidden opportunity gaps like these are just as influential So when assessing a company's culture, we measure these gaps between men's and women's experiences And the smaller the gap, the more equity is center of the culture We also searched our findings for the tenets of workplace culture that are most important to men and most important to women We learned that only three factors consistently matter to men, while a dozen matter to women And they only share one in common Topping the list for women: Paid family leave, health care for dependents and feeling that their ideas are heard and they're properly credited for them These are a few of the 188 indicators that determine whether or not an organization meets our quantitative standard for workplace equality Based on the data that matter These are the factors to create a culture of equity that lasts Not just for a month or for a quarter but for years So where does this leave us? Women in the workforce today are constantly told, "You can be anything you want now It's up to you." Women of color, for whom the wage gap is even larger, have heard it The two-thirds of minimum-wage workers who are women have heard it Workers who don't identify as male or female and hide their identity at work have heard it If they can hear, "You can be anything you want now, it's up to you," I believe it's time for our businesses to hear it, too Eliminating workplace bias is a tall order But we can't afford to let half our people go on being ignored We've given businesses a framework for real change Businesses can be anything they want now It is up to them Thank you 76 Modalization Type Probability Subjective Usuality Objective Subjective Objective Orientation Explicit Implicit Median Implicit Explicit Implicit Explicit Implicit Can’t (1) High Value Explicit I think (3) Never (1) Would (4) Tend to (1), be likely to (3) Probably (2) Can (9) Low Modulation Type Obligation Inclination Subjective Objective Subjective Objective Orientation Explicit Median Have to (1), will have to (1) Should (3), need to (4) Low Not have to (1) High Value Implicit Explicit Implicit Explicit Implicit Explicit Implicit Have to (1) We’ll (1), I would (1) NS – 04 Gender-based education https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV-g6uQfllk&ab_channel=TEDxTalks Hi I know who I am, I know that I matter, and I know what matters to me, and thank you for allowing me to share that with you tonight Five years ago, I started on a journey to build girl schools based on the brain science of movement, and how it readily boosts cognitive achievement, and the best practices in genderbased learning I was determined and still believe that if I could convince the general public - you, that if you have a body, you are an athlete, then the rest - traveling to cities around the country and building schools - would be a piece of cake I came up against three major obstacles The first was my own story and history The second, the phenomenal animal called public education And the third being the current discourse around whether women can or cannot have it all So, first, this is my story I am the product of a successful first generation in American '70s household, where my mother's advice centered around smiling and looking pretty - The second, my father's advice, and diligent support of my success was based on doing it the way men did it, the way he did it, and, simultaneously, acting like a lady This was confusing, but appropriate for the Mary Tyler Moore times After a privilege of that bringing, including an Ivy League education and a division one athletic experience, I made many a good and bad decision on my way into adulthood Trust me, there are some doozies and I have the scars to prove it 77 But one week, and about 15 years ago, while I was living overseas, I found myself at a spa weekend with three friends, three women I deeply admired, and they are all deeply immersed in feminist activity One night, we were sitting at the pool, and under the stars we did share those scars of our lives And like scars do, theirs had propelled them to proclaim and work diligently in the feminist arena But at that point in my life, I was not ready to declare myself a feminist I'm pretty sure and my biggest fear was that, if I did, there would be this big bushel of hair growing under my arms and on my legs But, giving in to peer pressure as we do, the next morning, even at the age of 30, I declared, "I am a feminist!", and they cheered But, honestly, until now, I really don't think I knew what that meant to me Okay, public education As late as 2011, last year in September, Salon magazine and the Huffington Post reported on how boring schools continue to be and its devastating effect on our kids In the last few years, cutting-edge new schools have developed and I submit to you that the public high school in Naperville, Illinois, the Namaste school, in Chicago, and the Girls' Athletic Leadership School, in Denver, are anything but boring places to be These schools are pushing the edge on active pedagogy and teaching content through movement They invite new forms of movement and health curricula in order to ensure the nourishment, stimulation and engagement of our students' minds and bodies And all three of these schools are showing positive achievement results And then, when we are all paying attention as parents, there's this obsession with high stakes testing, teaching to the test, rigor upon rigor, where education reform is narrowly defined and mostly experienced as ultra-traditional models So, where does that leave the rest of us who want a creative, compassionate education for our children one where the schools truly know our kids well, from the inside out, and our kids are taught to know themselves well? And then in the middle of all this bureaucracy and chaos, remains the question, "Do genderbased schools girls' schools give their students an edge?" So, here's the research that grabs me: UCLA came to the conclusion in their latest social research, in 2010, that simply put, "Girls' schools teach girls there is enormous power and potential in being a girl." The research also shows that the biggest difference between girls' school graduates and their co-ed counterpart is the confidence and aspiration that girls have This is exactly what I want for my two daughters Now the discourse that's going on in the world - like many men and women, I have been tangled up inside by Anne-Marie Slaughter's article in the Atlantic Magazine entitled "Women Can't Have It All" And then, to make it more confusing, a friend told me that nearly every third article on the Atlantic magazine publishes some angle on the "mommy" world, "Should I be an executive, should I stay home?" "Must I be an executive, must I stay home?" And then two years ago, Sheryl Sandberg gave this amazing, rousing graduation speech to the sitting graduates at Barnard College saying to them, "You must lean into your lives and own the responsibility of becoming leaders of industry." And while you can be sure that I deeply appreciate "leaning into our lives", the tunnel vision of "this is what our girl graduates must be" didn't make me feel so good either And then one year ago, my colleague Rachel Simmons was at the TEDxWashingtonDC event, and she shared her research on that today's girl school graduates absolutely have twentyfirst century leadership external resumes, but their internal resumes, their sense of self and that they can be who they want to be and their ability to navigate relationships is lagging behind So, where does this all leave us? Here is my conclusion I want you to take away with tonight: we need to stop the bickering about whether women can or cannot have it all, because the next generation of equal opportunity is here It is not about equal opportunity It is about "every" opportunity Our girls can break barriers in poetry, science, nature, art, rugby and dance They can solve hunger, write books, build buildings, fly into outer space They can choose to have children or not have children They can stay home and take care of anybody's children They can volunteer in organizations, protect the environment, and teach yoga on the side And you know what? We are allowed to toggle back and forth between two, three or four of these at any time we want It is perfectly American, perfectly feminist, and I love it Isn't this the definition of feminism our foremothers have been fighting for? The one where our girls know that it is absolutely possible to have it all and that having it all is their inherent right as American citizens to make their own decisions at all times But this right must be backed by an education system that embraces an educational path to most successfully find their way to fulfilment As we've said all night, it's not just good for girls; it's good for humanity After-school programming in summer institutes, they've taken us really far And opting in based on scars of your lives has worked for so many, and thank goodness for that And women's colleges and women's programs are a terrific resource, but here we are In the last decade, it was reported that 82% of female executives played sports in school Combine this with the latest social research that shows girls' school graduates have higher aspirations and higher confidence We can't allow this generation to miss it Gender-based schooling may not be the final choice for all, but it must be taken seriously Our schools have adopted a pledge; it goes like this, "I know who I am, I know that I matter, I know what matters to me." And we end with the line, "I know I can make a difference in the world in my own unique way." Wonder Woman knows it! Eileen Fisher knows it, U.S Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and pop-star Katy Perry knows it And surely, our own Missy Franklin knows it But now you know it! So you and I together must take what we now know and lean into gender-based schooling with our whole bodies, our time, energy, money, and participation of our daughters Let's make sure that the glass ceilings of this generation and the next come crashing down Thank you 78 Modalization Type Probability Orientation High Value Subjective Explicit I know (7), I believe that (1), I’m pretty sure (1) Median Low I really don’t think (1) Implicit Explicit Can’t (2), may not (1) Subjective Implicit Explicit Objective Implicit Explicit Implicit It is absolutely possible (1) Would (2) Could (1), can (7) Modulation Type Obligation Orientation High Value Usuality Objective Median Inclination Subjective Explicit Objective Implicit Explicit Subjective Implicit Explicit Objective Implicit Explicit Implicit Must (6) Should (2), need to (1) Be allowed to (1) Low NS – 05 Is modern feminism starting to undermine itself? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgIgytWyo_A&ab_channel=TEDxTalks Good afternoon So I'm not sure if I can detect any bristling in the audience with my somewhat controversial title, given that we sit here in a diversity-themed event What I will say is just please bear with me, particularly because I'm going to be starting on such a positive note There has never been a better time to be a woman Never have women had as many opportunities as they now To run countries, companies, to control their personal, financial and sex lives Girls outperform boys at school, more go to university Women in their 20s and early 30s are frequently outearning men We should feel optimistic And yet we're not In fact, sometimes it seems all womanhood is depressed Faced by an avalanche of information regarding the ongoing disparity and fortunes between women and men; by a narrative of disadvantage and societal patriarchy that runs through Me Too, the gender pay gap, the glass ceiling, and more But how crystal cut are these assumptions? And what are the possible implications for how women respond to both opportunities and challenges in their lives? So who am I? A woman, yes, and a mother to three children under five I'm a successful entrepreneur enjoying a career where I get to deal with some of the biggest thinkers and doers in the world today, in business, in politics, in media, academia I'm privileged, no question My race, background and opportunities mark me as one of the privileged elite What I know about disadvantage? And what's my agenda here? Well, as a woman, I'm a minority in my field of technology and entrepreneurship Hard industries to be a woman in - or so the narrative would have you believe No Not so I don't believe that this has been a disadvantage, only the most incredible opportunity One that has enabled me to stand out and get recognition I describe myself as an entrepreneur, not a female entrepreneur, because I subscribe to a brand of feminism that told me I could be and anything the boys could And in fact, I've come to resent the move towards positive discrimination, that might imply that any of my achievements are due to anything other than merit 79 If I look back at all my good fortune, I can honestly say that to a large extent, it's been down to the love and support and belief of the men in my life My father, my husband, the bosses, business partners, peers and mentors enabled my journey But of course the biggest advantage I possess is self-confidence and belief And it's this that I want to look at in more detail today Why is it seemingly so much harder to find in women than in men? And how might modern feminism be further undermining it? The talk of the gender pay gap is everywhere and actually incorrectly assumed by 70% of the population to refer to women being paid less for the same work Not true Illegal, actually And also nonsensical, as surely businesses would prefer to pay a cheaper workforce The median disparity of 18.4% can to a large extent be explained by the choice of 42% of women to work part-time The figure drops to 9.1% when you compare full-time to full-time, with this figure understandable to a degree by the fact that women are choosing different profession types Women in their 20s and early 30s, as we've heard, are frequently outearning men The pay gap is negligible; it fluctuates; some years women outearn men And part-time women actually outearn part-time men So in effect, the headline statistic ignores many of the complicated variable factors beneath it And in particular a potential positive: that of female choice The glass ceiling - it's been shattered time and time again by female heads of state and business leaders, demonstrating that for those women that aspire to that sort of career, it's absolutely possible But these are of course hard - masochistic almost - lives, filled with imbalance, politics, stress, long hours We can hardly even whisper any suspicion we may have that this is a lifestyle that fewer women and mothers aspire to And arguably, only the tiniest percentage of men Right now, I'm currently observing a large number of some of my highest-flying friends quietly leaning out of aspirations of making partner, away from 60-hour work weeks, with some choosing to quit altogether so as not to enjoy these early years of family life, myself included Two years ago, I made the decision to step back from the front seat of my business to spend more time with my three children And it's a decision I will never regret Having lost two friends recently, very early in their lives, it really brought home to me the fact that I will never get these years back That's too important But of course, women like me are partly responsible for the gender pay gap, and many of us may never go knocking on that glass ceiling because it's simply not a lifestyle that we desire These is just two of the big feminist issues of our time, with others including Me Too, online trolling, body shaming and objectification, and domestic violence - all issues you'd be forgiven for thinking were exclusively female Now, there's been a lot of very well-intentioned campaigning behind these issues and some very positive by-products, such as the light being shone on some of the more insidious ways in which some men can mistreat and underestimate women, and of course, on abuses of power But my fear is that the broad-spectrum, expanding definition of prejudice and harassment is now something that almost any woman can associate with And we simply can't cry misogyny every time we're called out or held back in some way I fear for an ideology and a rhetoric that is starting to set women against men, that focuses on what we can't and haven't got rather than what we can and have My intention in seeking to shine light on some of the other sides of these issues is not to deny the existence of discrimination that may exist in some of them, but to question the cumulative net effect - that of female victimhood Feminism, like other forms of identity politics, has become obsessed with female victimhood Whereas it once used to be about the portrayal of women as mature, equal partners in society, it now seems more to be about girl power And yet it disempowers It seems that we're weak and defenseless, like children Psychologists have long emphasized the power of beliefs to be born out in reality, and how stereotypes contribute to social inequality Confidence is, of course, self-fulfilling - something you will all have experienced You look good; you feel good You're told someone likes you; you're more relaxed around them And conversely, if you suspect someone doesn't like you, then you act in a more defensive, less confident way around them Victims believe they are impotent and that they have no sense of control over the way that events unfold Assuming that something has happened to you due to prejudice, whether right or wrong, it's rarely the most productive response It prevents introspection, self-analysis, and more importantly, particularly if it was due to prejudice, evaluation of new methods and techniques for circumventing your status quo And what about men? Well, there's actually competition here for competitive victimhood if we want to play that game Men have their own unique set of disadvantages that are rarely up for public discussion, including higher rates of school dropout; of mental health; vastly higher suicide rates; vastly higher workplace deaths; war deaths; deaths in crime; higher rates of homelessness; criminal court bias and sentencing disparity, where men receive nearly 60% longer sentences than women for the same crime; near equal domestic abuse rates; paternity fraud; child custody; and, of course, reduced life expectancy Even now, in this age of aspirational equality, the cry will go out: "Women and children first!" Take for example the awful news story of Boko Haram and the terrorists that abducted the girls Did you know that prior to this happening, those same terrorists had been abducting thousands of boys and murdering hundreds of boys and young men? Burned alive in their schools, shot in the streets A situation that received no international attention until the terrorists turned their attention to the girls And then, First Ladies, media, celebrities, politicians up in arms But why only then? Why are boys' lives seemingly valued so much less than girls'? Whoever might have it worse, I take issue with the debating ground based on competitive victimhood It's fruitless; it's destructive Women are being encouraged to fear and distrust men, and men are more nervous and guarded in their interactions around women And worse, resentful of a label of "patriarchy," one that the vast majority don't recognize, and who have their own challenges to face Already, we're seeing some rather worrying by-products to all of this, such as five times more men now less inclined to mentor women in the wake of Me Too 75% of young girls yet to experience any form of discrimination talk about anxiety about it affecting their lives in some way And working class girls have been deprived of jobs that they love, such as Page Girls and Grid Girls, because other women disapprove of them What happened to "my body, my choice"? It's OK for Kim Kardashian, but not for a Page Girl And men have had their careers and reputations ruined overnight by Me Too Some possibly justly, but without any due process, no innocence until proven guilty And where might all this lead? Quotas leading to doubts in ability? Was my recent MBE because of positive discrimination? Am I on this stage because of it? Should we ban flirting on campus and in the workplace? - incidentally two of the places where you're most likely to meet a life partner 80 My company started recruiting fewer women into entry-level, lower-payed work so as to even out their gender pay gaps And if 50/50 is the ultimate aim, then shouldn't we be arguing for quotas for more men in the fields of nursing, teaching, veterinary science? More women on the front line, in construction, in refuse collection? And perhaps the three most important questions of all: Does power exist solely in the boardroom and at the highest levels of politics and business? Or is there the possibility that it exists in choice? And arguably, don't women have more of that? Does equality of opportunity have to equal equality of outcome? And aren't the assumptions that women need more support, protection, quotas in the workplace arguably the most patriarchal assumptions of all? Now, don't get me wrong I don't believe that the women's movement has had its day or that there's no longer a case for feminism But I believe we need to reverse some of these negative trends So here are three positive solutions, as I see it One: Where girls are concerned, best way that we beat prejudice is to build up confidence and to show it and demonstrate it to be wrong We teach girls strength and resilience to call out prejudice in the moment We celebrate successful women, hold them up there as role models for both girls and boys, where arguably the impact may be greater And we don't so, always complaining about the minority representation And we celebrate the unique power that women have today in schools, homes, marriages, families, and yes, business and politics, wielding immense influence over the hearts and minds of the future Two: We turn our attention to true gender equality, stop painting all men with the broad brush of oppressor and recognize that yes, there are bad, abusive men in this world, but there are also bad, fallible women Sadly, we are all equally capable of inflicting misery on each other And in a world where women are able to participate more equally in the public sphere, we need to better level the private for men in our homes and families And it's here that we should refocus the debate And three: We give more oxygen to the truly deep, profound inequalities that still exist in this world, in developing countries, for women who can't get the same education, get forced into arranged marriages, can't have access to birth control Or here, socioeconomic and educational disadvantage And the fact that hiring typically still happens along "people like me" lines, a much bigger threat to business diversity than gender And above all, we listen to each other with open minds Play the ideological ball and not the player Be kind So it's often said that you can't be what you can't see No Not so Some of the most powerful figures in history have been something that didn't exist Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat, so kick-starting the course of civil rights Steven Hawking changed the world of science with his brain, irrespective of his bodily weakness Tommie Smith and John Carlos silently raised their fists on the podium of the '68 Olympics, so drawing attention to black rights And Malala stood up publicly to her oppressors, and that earned her a platform from which she could educate the world They never believed they couldn't They never cried victim They were strong, resilient, defiant Just as a terrorist thrives on terror and the bully on distress, defiance, ridicule, even pity is a much stronger antidote to bad behavior than wounded insecurity We need to stop thinking of gender as an identity We have so much more in common with those with whom we share values and outlook than chromosomes Our gender, our race, our sexuality, our disability - they are all just part of the rich tapestry of who we are as individuals, and none of these things outside of our control should affect our outlook There are still a huge number of inequalities in this world, but our individual right to self-belief is a simple and universal possibility, and it is this that we need to instill in our young Because it's actually not my daughter I'm worried about in this new-world view; it's my sons But that'll be OK Because we'll be bringing them up to recognize their individual potential, to not indulge in victimhood, and to see that the power they have being born where and when they have is one of choice They'll make all their own, and they'll deeply respect those of other people Thank you Thank you very much Modalization Type Probability Orientation High Value Subjective Explicit I believe that (1) Will (6), would (2) Median Low Implicit Surely would (1), can’t (6), couldn’t (1) I’m not sure (1), I don’t believe that (1) could (3), can (6), can hardly (1), might (4), may (3) Usuality Objective Explicit Subjective Implicit Explicit Objective Implicit It’s absolutely possible (1) Explicit Implicit Never (4), always (1) be inclined to (1), be likely to (1) It seems that (1), There is the possibility that (1) 81 Will never (2) Frequently (2), often (1) Rarely (2) possibly (1), perhaps (1), may never (1) Modulation Type Obligation Inclination Subjective Objective Subjective Objective Orientation Explicit High Value Median Implicit Explicit Implicit Explicit Implicit Have to (1) Should shouldn’t need to (4) (4), (1), We will (1) Low 82 Explicit Implicit ... USA, UK, Ireland, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand Non -native speakers (NNS) of English, on the other hand, are people who speak English as second or foreign language, but have a. .. is modality realized (in terms of type, value and orientation) in TED talks on gender equality? What are the similarities and differences in the use of modality between native and non -native speakers. .. encountered by foreign language users in understanding and using modality and the scarcity of literature in investigating speeches made by native and non -native speakers lead the researcher to