Meet June Sarpong
Welcome June Sarpong, Gender Balance Summit 2021 keynote speaker
As we countdown to next week’s Gender Balance Summit 2021, we’re looking forward to hearing from writer, broadcaster and diversity advocate June Sarpong. Over two decades Sarpong has shown herself not only as a talented and popular television presenter but as an activist who challenges inequality in society and champions inclusion within the corporate world. The author of several books, she’s spoken with authority and passion on topics including female representation on boards and gender bias. She’s presented research on disenfranchised groups, arguing that diversity in business is not only beneficial to the bottom line but also the right thing to do.
In a year when International Women’s Day ([1] March 8th, the same day as our Gender Balance Summit) is asking us all to challenge gender bias and inequality, Sarpong has long argued that as a country we can’t afford to be “blind, silent and inactive” to injustice anymore. “We can’t keep allowing the talents of this century to go to waste when we need it the most,” she said.
CREATING A VOICE
Sarpong’s broadcasting career started in radio and MTV in the mid-90s but it was hosting Channel 4’s teenage strand T4 post-Millennium that turned the east-London born and educated daughter of Ghanaian immigrant parents into a household name. Her friendly yet inquisitive style resonated with viewers and celebrity guests alike, and in 2005 she exclusively interviewed prime minister Tony Blair. By then an ambassador for the Prince’s Trust (a role she continues to this day), she went on to present that year’s Make Poverty History event in Trafalgar Square and in 2008 co-hosted Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday celebrations in London’s Hyde Park.
In 2010, after moving to the US, she co-founded the Women Inspiration and Enterprise Alliance (WIE) an international conference supporting female excellence and empowerment. Notable speakers have included Melinda Gates, Sarah Brown and Nancy Pelosi. Now living back in the UK and continuing to present and appear regularly on TV (Loose Women and Question Time among the jobs under her belt), Sarpong has also built a reputation as a leading campaigner for diversity and inclusion.
UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTHS
Her first book Diversify: Six Degrees of Integration, released in 2017, shone a spotlight on society’s marginalised groups – including women, those living with disabilities, and the LGBTQ community. It sets out the economic, social and moral arguments for “levelling the playing field” so that everyone can contribute to the best of their abilities and lessen the pressures on the state. Working alongside Professor Anthony Heath at Nuffield College, Oxford University, their research calculated the cost of the of discrimination in the UK to be £127bn a year.
“When we are relaxed about the lack of diversity and equal pay in various career sectors we are all poorer, as the talent that might have provided the ‘against the grain’ solution is wasted,” she said. “We all have to face our uncomfortable truths — our isms, our fears, our prejudices — and stop doing the uncomfortable splutter when the subject of difference comes up.”
Her follow up, The Power of Women (2018), explored why feminism works for everyone, debunking myths and proving why bringing women to the table is key to personal, social and economic growth. “We have to get really clear about what it is that we want and what it is that we expect. And then demand it in a really strategic way, and a systematic way,” she urged. “…Otherwise, we're complaining, we're shouting, but we're not actually forcing change. We're speaking truth to power, but we're not changing the power dynamic.”
On the “serious disparity” between the numbers of men in leadership positions compared to women, Sarpong – who received an MBE in 2007 for services to broadcasting and charity and was appointed OBE last year – acknowledges that she has been held back from leadership in the past, often not realising until later.
In her latest book, The Power of Privilege (2020), Sarpong educates and challenges those that have been enjoying the benefits of a system steeped in systemic racism without realising its true cost. She offers practical tips to empower those fortunate enough not to be 'otherised' by mainstream Western society to become effective allies against racism, both by understanding the roots of their privilege and the systemic societal inequities that perpetuates it.
And Sarpong strongly encourages women to actively support other women in the workplace and in meetings. “If you are in a position to champion a female leader then you must. You must see it as your duty. If a woman has an idea, make it your mission to ensure that idea is attributed to them,” says Sarpong, who counts former Labour party general secretary Baroness Margaret McDonagh, as her mentor. "She is one of the most powerful women in British politics but she is so down to earth, and really nurtures the next generation."
To level the playing field, Sarpong favours quotas and targets in the private sector. “I think affirmative action works, and we’ve had affirmative action in the opposite direction for centuries. Sometimes we have to shock the system. We have to do it to normalise things, to get to a tipping point and then let the system just takes care of itself.” It’s a view she knows not everyone agrees with, but it’s certainly one that gets people talking.