Database with female experts
On March 14, 2019 Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Moscow have officially launched the website of the project “She is an expert”, which is a database with female experts from a variety of fields, from IT to cinema, gastronomy, and decolonial philosophy.
It was a detailed examination of the project followed by a discussion and a marathon of mini-speeches on how gender has made its way to the media and started to change its standards, how women feel in the most “non-female” professions, what you can do if you caught yourself being misogynic, how equal access to resources for men and women affects the economy, what economic mechanisms can positively influence gender equality, and, finally, what is so dangerous about the so-called #allmalepanels, both for the well-being of society and business projects. Similar initiatives that emerged abroad over the last several years have also been discussed.
Among our guests there were theater director and actress Anastasia Patlay, HSE professor of gender sociology Elena Rozhdestvenskaya, sociologist, Oxford Russia Fellow and doctoral student at Cambridge University Olga Zeveleva, entrepreneur and co-founder of Impact Hub Moscow Anastasia Gulyavina, gender sociologist and author of several educational gender-related projects Irina Kosterina, composer, producer and founder of the online journal and platform “Parallel” Evgeniya Nedosekina, co-founder of the independent cultural space DK “Delay Kulturu” Darya Fedotova, founder of the MoscowFemFest Irina Izotova, founder of the project “Women in Philosophy” Tatyana Levina, Women’s Affairs Correspondent in BBC Russia Nina Nazarova.
More than 100 women have already registered on the platform “She is an expert”! Below, you can see a photo report of the event, learn more about Sh.e and join the project!
Why we created the platform
Despite the fact that more and more women today are actively involved in politics, science, arts and business, their voices often continue to remain invisible in public sphere. For some reason, it turns out that the so-called allegedly “serious and important” spheres, such as physics, IT, technology, politics, and business still manage to gather #allmalepanels, even though female experts in these spheres exist and are often as well qualified and experienced as their male counterparts. The idea of the project is to make these female experts more visible in public space, to redefine the very term “expertise” – in order to include those previously excluded. This project is about extending the feminist principle of self-positioning, with which any statement begins, to other forms of knowledge, including expert knowledge.
How the website works
The website offers two features: FIND and BECOME. The former gives you access to the database and allows you to find a suitable specialist for your event, conference or a business project. With the help of the latter you yourself can register as an expert by creating your profile on the platform.
The Sh.e team tried to include all possible scientific spheres and all important contemporary practices into the project. As a result, many sections turned out to be multidisciplinary or even antidisciplinary, which makes it possible to move away from the traditional hierarchy of those "serious and important" and "not serious and unimportant" professions and areas of knowledge.
Who created “She is an expert”
Nuria Fatykhova – the concept of the project, texts, promotion
Natalya Stolberg – visual Наталья Стольберг – visual solution, design, graphics
Sasha Baranovskaya – graphics
Konstantin Polivanov – web-development, website maintenance
Nika Makhlina – texts
Alena Zhogol – editor
Yuliya Alekseyeva – proofreader
How to learn more and follow the project’s news
Sh.e website
Sh.e Facebook
Sh.e Instagram
