These Images Capture What Real Women Leadership Looks Like

A quick Google search of the term “women in leadership” brings up endless variations of this image: a woman wearing a blazer with her arms crossed or hands on her hips and a smile on her face. When Rebecca Swift, global head of creative insights at Getty Images, first entered photography in the ’90s, that stereotypical image was all she saw because “when females were presented as leaders, they emulated the male leader.” But nearly three decades later, women leadership has taken on a new look and management style. “That kind of single person standing alone with no one around them visually doesn’t work anymore, because I don’t think there are many female leaders who would ever say that it was their singular activity and the things that they did that have gotten them to where they are,” Swift said. “Women are much more collaborative in that process. We bring people with us.” Swift’s thoughts on modern leadership helped plant the seeds for “Women in Leadership: Achieving an Equal Future in a Covid-19 World,” a gallery that Getty Images curated with the Unstereotype Alliance, an initiative through UN Women that aims to stop gender stereotypes in advertising. The gallery, which launched ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8, features more than 200 images of women in various leadership positions ranging from healthcare to farming. The biggest takeaway Swift wants advertisers and marketers to get out of the gallery is to “be more thoughtful about their choices” in imagery “and not rely on choices they have always made.” Sara Denby, head of the Unstereotype Alliance Secretariat, UN Women, believes that if a young woman can see an accurate portrayal of another woman in a leadership role, she 'can be it.' Sara Denby, head of the Unstereotype Alliance Secretariat, UN Women, said there were many questions that went into curating the women featured in the gallery, such as “Who are they in their society, in their home?” and “What is it that makes them a rich and colorful personality?” to ensure that women from all kinds of backgrounds were represented. Partnering with Getty Images—which the Unstereotype Alliance has done before—seemed like the “perfect way” to showcase this imagery to advertising and marketing teams across the globe. Denby’s belief is that “if you can see it, you can be it.” “The only way we’re going to shift the narrative about women in the workplace and representation at every level and equity at every level is if we show that and reflect that back to society,” she said. “If we don’t make that space in marginalized communities, they’ll continue to be marginalized and their stories and their voices will continue to be unheard.” Rebecca Swift, global head of creative insights at Getty Images, wants advertisers and marketers to 'be more thoughtful' about how they illustrate women. Diversity and intersectionality is also top of mind for Swift as it's core to what she works on at Getty Images and she wants to keep “expanding out the visual language of what we’re looking at.” “We don’t need to be told that someone is a leader because they’re, I don’t know, pointing, or they’re standing in front of a group of people or they’re leading—literally leading—people along,” she said. “We know the characteristics and we know the personality traits of someone who is potentially a leader, and that can manifest itself in so many different ways visually. And it’s much more interesting doing it in lots of different ways than doing the same stuff over and over again.” Denby hopes the gallery removes some aspects of unconscious bias people have about women. “We’re all so much more aware of the responsibility we have for the content that we create now,” she said, “and the impact that has on young people, the impact that it has on people’s self-esteem and their self-worth and whether they feel like they can do what they had always dreamed of doing.” Going forward, Denby wants to remove unconscious bias when it comes to portraying any and all women in leadership roles. “One of the biggest insults I think to any creative concept or visual is when it feels expected,” she said. “That’s what any creative is trying to do is to produce work that is unexpected, that prompts thinking that shifts the narrative, that opens people’s eyes to possibilities. And I think what we’re wanting to achieve with this collection is to make the unexpected the accepted.” Read Next: Here’s What Brands Are Doing for Women’s History Month 2021

International Women's Day

These Images Accurately Portray What Women Look Like in Leadership Roles

Getty Images and UN Women’s Unstereotype Alliance co-created a gallery ahead of International Women’s Day

Tiffany Moustakas

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Tiffany Moustakas