Breaking Barriers: With x The Heard free media training finalists announced

While we’ve seen businesses speak up about creating a more equitable workplace, an enlightening report on The Gender News Gaps from Women In Journalism and Man Bites Dog uncovered that women are still outnumbered five to one as expert contributors in the media, and only 28% of journalists reported that their organisations had set targets to improve the representation of female expert contributors in their reporting.

Improving the representation of voices in the media is needed to progress societal and economic parity. Business leaders need to recognise that the value of representation goes beyond just saying and a need to actively seek out diverse spokespeople, so the struggle against the gender gap doesn’t remain an uphill battle.

Here at With, we are continuing our commitment to helping women tell their unique stories, tackle specialist topics, and handle tricky media questions. So, we have collaborated with The Heard, a spokesperson index for women and non-binary people in fintech, to offer three of its members free media training. 

Today we’re pleased to announce the final three nominations for our media training session:

• Mary Agbesanwa, Fintech Growth Lead, Seccl
• Fliss Berridge, Director and Co-founder, Ordo
• Chanelle Pattinson, Chartered Financial Planner & Founding Team Member of Money Means

The initiative is part of a larger effort to ensure that women’s voices are heard in the public sphere. “The FinTech industry still appears to be a man’s world, unfortunately. Women need to be seen in order to level this up, and this may mean being in front of a camera, journalist or on a podcast. This can be daunting, so to know I’ve got the tools to handle this like any man or woman on the media street will set me up for a good interview!” says Berridge. 

The session will be a high value, foundational course that covers all aspects from theory to best practice with appropriate levels of detail. We hope the participants will understand their personal importance in creating positive change, leaving them feeling confident when speaking directly to the media. 

“As a woman in sales with experience hosting and speaking events, media training will further improve my public speaking skills for live and pre-recorded content as well as boost my confidence conveying important messages clearly and concisely.” says Agbesanwa. 

“Media training for women is crucial for equipping them with the skills they need to navigate the media world, ensuring that their voices are heard and their stories are accurately and fairly represented” says Pattinson. 

If you’re interested in finding speakers from underrepresented genders please check out a selection of indexes and communities here: The Heard, Woman Talk Design, 500 Woman Scientists

If you’re interested in arranging media training for your own team please email us at hello@withpr.com and one of our team members will be in touch.