Carla Sorey-Reed
Founder & Executive Producer
Women Uninterrupted
I’ve been sharing stories in one way or another my entire adult life. I truly believe a good story can effect significant change. I began my career as an actress, telling other people’s stories before I discovered my passion for helping others find their voice and give power to their own message.
For the past fifteen years, I have spent the bulk of my time coaching technology executives, TED talkers, authors, social innovators and rock stars – yes, real ones – to use the spoken word to create meaningful change.
In attending countless conferences with my clients, I found myself becoming disenchanted with presentations that lack the authenticity and vulnerability of being fully present in the speaking moment, that human element that can create emotion in the audience and inspire change.
So late last year when I was working with a bright young woman named Marni Cohen on a speech that was mostly about mansplaining, I was inspired. I was inspired when I learned through her research the shocking extent to which women are interrupted by men and, as I later learned, also interrupted by women. But also, by her compelling speaking style, which was still raw, real and moving.
It inspired the name of a conference I had long been dreaming about: Women Uninterrupted -- What’s Left Unsaid?
I began to wonder what thoughts and ideas were not being heard or getting out into the world because women were being interrupted? What behaviors were women adopting and what psychic space were they retreating to as a result of feeling unheard?
This same study suggested that women are the biggest "offenders" of interrupting. I began to wonder if interrupting and fast-talking might be related. Why do women talk so damn fast? Could it be because we are scared of being interrupted so we try to cram as many words in as little time as possible? Perhaps men are more comfortable taking up conversational real estate because we allow them more than we allow our sisters. Clearly as women, we have some accountability in this equation. But when there may only be one woman at the conversation table, whether that’s in a boardroom or a meeting with the chiefs of staff, how does she find her way in?
Women Uninterrupted has grown to encompass an exploration of what would happen to the female self if we were to eliminate all of those interruptions that stop us from being fully realized: The psychic and "real" interruptions created by having kids, leaving the work force, self-doubt, dealing with health issues, violence and familial and societal expectations.
As I write this, I am made to wonder is it illusory to consider a life minus interruptions? Probably!
So perhaps it’s more meaningful to discuss the second part of the title: What’s Left Unsaid? What is left unsaid when we are mentally and physically held captive by that which interrupts us? All the new agey inspirational pablum in the world -"if you can believe it, you can become it" - falls flat if you feel interrupted beyond repair.
And thus, Women Uninterrupted was born, a new event created to give a platform to the brave voices of women, known and emerging, baby boomers and millennials who will reveal audacious, unexpected truths about what really matters to women.
Join me at Women Uninterrupted: What's left Unsaid? on December 8 from 12 pm – 6 pm at the Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak Street, Oakland, CA.
