Break the Silence Collective

As far as inaugural Christmas parties go, the Break the Silence Collective bash last night was up there! We feel hugely proud to have come as far as we have this year and what better way to celebrate with a group of like-minded allies all committed to action to drive change in the industry. Huge thank you to Praytell for kindly providing us with the space, 72Point for keeping us well fed and glasses topped up and to everyone who turned out to celebrate, support and look ahead to a taster of 2026…more to follow on that very soon, but it’s safe to say that it’s going to be a busy and exciting year as we progress to the next phase of our plans. To get involved, contact Natasha Plowman Shayoni Lynn FCIPR FPRCA Stuart Bruce Frank Dias Victoria O’Brien Anita Iwugo Katreena Dare Katie Eborall #breakthesilence

Quick thoughts on the Break the Silence Collective event at Grayling hosted by Katie Eborall and supported by 72Point Stuart Bruce presented the findings of the research on the persistent sexism and misogyny in the PR sector (link in the first reply below) which when mixed in with the equally damaging ageism in PR makes for depressing/infuriating reading. The discussion afterwards amongst the almost exclusively female attendees (where were you lads?) was crisply summed up by Lally Wilks as "I'm done with this s**t, how is this still a thing in 2025?" There's no silver bullet but there is cause for hope in the Employment Rights Bill making its way through Parliament. This will protect women in a number of ways (this is not exhaustive) 1. Equality action plans: Large employers (250+ staff) will be required to produce and publish equality action plans that set out steps to address issues like the gender pay gap and support for employees experiencing the menopause. 2. Flexible working: The right to request flexible working will be a day-one right, and employers will only be able to refuse a request if it is reasonable to do so.  3. Extension of unfair dismissal protections: The period after returning from maternity or shared parental leave during which dismissal is unlawful except in "specific circumstances" will be extended. 4. Duty to prevent harassment: Employers will have a duty to take "reasonable steps" to prevent sexual harassment by colleagues and third parties (ie clients) and they will be liable for harassment by third parties which will make for some *very* interesting commercial decisions in PR agencies who find they have a lucrative but "handsy" client. 5. Increased compensation: Tribunals can uplift compensation by up to 25% if an employer fails to take reasonable steps to prevent harassment. Some employers will see this as a burden and will risk ignoring it or pay lip service, but for employers serious about attracting, retaining and developing female talent it's an opportunity to not only to hit but go beyond the standard. There is plenty of time to design working practices and policies which embed these raised standards and get ahead of the legislation to gain an edge in the "war for talent".

We kicked off our UK tour this morning as we took our report findings to Leeds - partnering with the good folks at Grayling. Huge thanks to Katie Eborall, Lally Wilks, Nadia Padayachy , Alex Beresford, Kerryn Sorhaindo and Claire Robinson for sharing your gorgeous office space and for all your support. And to our steering group members Victoria O’Brien 72Point and Stuart Bruce Purposeful Relations for leading the event. We set out to create a space where people could speak candidly about gender equity and look forward to the conversations that will follow around our key focus areas: equity, allyship, parenthood, age, the next generation of talent, and the culture and policies that shape our workplaces. Watch out for the write up and actions to follow 👀 And if you’d like to host/get involved in future events - do get in touch 📥

Great opportunity to do some good on a much needed issue in our industry.

Today, the #WeLeadComms spotlight falls on an initiative to call on our hosts at LinkedIn to support #FairnessInTheFeed, an initiative backed by our honorees at the Break the Silence Collective. In their words: "We’re calling on LinkedIn to take urgent action to make the feed fairer: • A formal process to report unexplained reach collapses and a clear commitment to investigate them • Transparency on how posts are categorised and ranked, including what signals are prioritised and how decisions are made • An independent equity audit of the algorithm and its impact on underrepresented voices • A public review of the design values shaping visibility, including how “quality” and “professional relevance” are defined • Clear guidance on what words, phrases or topics trigger suppression, with this information made publicly available" "When certain voices are consistently pushed to the margins, so are the people behind them - in hiring, investment, funding, influence and credibility." "Visibility online shapes real-world outcomes. If we don’t question it, we replicate it." SIGN HERE https://c.org/NPNtK5cChX "Who is affected? Anyone whose tone, content or identity falls outside 'traditional norms'. That includes: • Global majority professionals • Women and non-binary people • Disabled and neurodivergent users • LGBTQ+ and trans voices • Migrant, working-class or refugee professionals • Non-native English speakers • Creators outside the US • Entrepreneurs and small business owners • Users under 35, whose tone, formatting and content are often deprioritised" SIGN HERE https://c.org/NPNtK5cChX

How can we have equity if we don’t have visibility? That line hits hard. It is intentional. The experiments are done. This is not a trend but an awakening that the status quo no longer serves any of us. LinkedIn is a core platform for all communicators - from sole traders, to boutique and networked agencies, to the businesses we serve. It was meant to be the democratisation of thought and ideas - it isn’t. Could it be? We need to find out. At Break the Silence we exist to create a fairer, more equitable, innovative and inclusive industry. The platforms we use are core to that. From media, to events, to the conversations we have. Please sign, share, amplify this survey across all of your networks. In WhatsApp communities, in groups you are part of. Anyone who wants something different. Thank you to Cindy Gallop and Jane Evans for kickstarting this. To Samantha Katz for showing us the financial cost of invisibility. To Louise Graham FRSA for keeping the movement going and to all number of supporters. Together we make change. If you would like to get involved in Break the Silence Collective - please contact Natasha Plowman Shayoni Lynn FCIPR FPRCA Frank Dias Victoria O’Brien Anita Iwugo Stuart Bruce or Katreena Dare #Fairnessinthefeed https://lnkd.in/e-9Gg3DW

I changed my name to Daniela for 4 days. Over the past week, women on LinkedIn ran an experiment: They switched their profile gender to "male" - and their reach exploded. Sometimes by hundreds of percent. So I did the opposite. I changed my backend gender, my display name, and my pronouns. Nothing else. The result? 📉 Day 1: reach down –26% 📉 Day 2: down another –48% 📈 Day 3: back up +38% 📉 Day 4: down –37% This wasn't a scientific study. But it's one more data point in a pattern women and marginalized identities have been naming for years. Bias rarely announces itself. There's no line of code saying "IF woman > THEN deprioritize." It hides in the architecture. In the training data. In the assumptions about who gets amplified - and who gets silenced. Now think about this: If this is how the platform handles posts, what happens when hiring systems filter people? ____ A few things worth naming: 1) This trend took off during Trans Visibility Week - a week meant to center trans and non-binary voices. Instead, the conversation shifted to cis people testing gender as a variable. Thank you daniela (dani) herrera for naming that. 2) Bias isn't just gendered, it's intersectional. As Bo Young Lee 이보영 and Cass Cooper, MHR remind us, gender, race, disability, age - they all compound. 3) If this post grows legs, spread some love to those who inspired it: Grateful to Lucy Ferguson and Megan Cornish, LICSW Cornish for the experiment, Break the Silence Collective for amplifying it, and to Cindy Gallop, who's been a relentless advocate for as long as I can remember. If AI is a mirror, it’s reflecting something we need to address.

All algorithmic platforms are built on bias. We can say that, but we don’t have to accept it. This week many of the Break the Silence community joined with women (and men) all over the world to continue to run experiments and prove the foundational bias that LinkedIn, like other platforms, has. You can read results from R Fairley and steering group member Frank Dias in the article here. You can also read an excellent overview (in comments) from Megan Cornish, LICSW who presented herself as a ‘man’ digitally for a week. This conversation has been bubbling for, well really forever, but this week we saw a spike as more women tested this out. This is not a trend, this is representation of real bias that is built into systems that too often claim objectivity. They are not. Break the Silence was created to build a more inclusive, fairer and innovative PR industry - and core to that is the platforms we use. How can we have equity if we don’t have visibility? The experiments may fade, but the real work of tackling bias will continue. What are you going to do differently now you know that content from women is not given a level playing field of visibility? Thank you Rebecca Burn-Callander for writing this up. https://lnkd.in/e7_En7V9

Please add to this thread and help amplify it. Change will only happen if we work together and highlight the issues.