Beyond the Optics | Backing Women, Not Just Showcasing Them
Trail Notes | Perspectives
on backing, not just celebrating
Celebrated.
Or backed?
Every year, as International Women's Day approaches, I find myself sitting with the same question. Who gets celebrated, and who actually gets backed?
The two are not the same thing. And that gap is worth talking about.
I am invited to speak at a lot of events that acknowledge this day. And often, those invitations come with an expectation of a reduced rate. The contradiction is not subtle. You are here because we value what you represent, but not quite enough to pay you what you are worth.
Celebration is cheap. Backing costs something.
One of them is a post. The other is a decision.
Trail Note · 01
The pattern
This is not just about speaking fees. It is a pattern that runs through corporate leadership, entrepreneurship, sport and the arts. Women prove their credibility, deliver results, and then prove it again. Support and recognition tend to arrive after the over-delivery, not before it.
Real backing (investment, leadership pathways, equal funding, being positioned as a decision maker rather than a diversity presence) still arrives slowly, and often only when it feels safe or obvious. That is not backing. That is following.
Support that only arrives after you have proven yourself twice is not support. It is permission.
Trail Note · 02
Who we instinctively champion
Some people walk into a room and their expertise is assumed. Others have to establish it every time, in every room, often starting from scratch with an audience that has not been primed to take them seriously.
I have been doing endurance expeditions for well over a decade. I watched Ned Brockman's incredible record attempt from Perth to Sydney receive coverage that treated it as though no one had ever attempted something like this before. The history of women in ultra distance running, endurance challenges and long haul adventure barely got a mention. Not because that history does not exist, but because the familiar narrative had already decided who the story was about.
Women who attempt similar feats receive less media coverage, fewer sponsorships and a fraction of the recognition. Not because the feat is lesser. Because our expectations shape who we celebrate, and those expectations take time to shift.
Her Trails coaching cue
Notice who you assume is credible the moment they walk in. That assumption is the starting line. For some it is generous. For others it is set further back.
Trail Note · 03
What backing women actually looks like
Backing is not a feeling. It is a series of decisions. Here is what it actually looks like in practice.
It looks like
Paying women their full worth. Not visibility in place of value.
Mentorship that leads somewhere. Not advice that flatters the mentor.
Funding female led ventures with the same confidence extended to male ones.
Positioning women as the expert in the room. Not the moderator of someone else's expertise.
Recognising potential early, before someone has had to prove themselves twice over to earn the belief that was given freely to someone else from the start.
If women have to succeed twice over just to be seen as credible, we are not just failing them. We are holding back progress, innovation and growth for everyone.
Visibility without investment is performance. Investment without visibility is still backing.
Trail Note · 04
The real test
International Women's Day is worth acknowledging. Honestly. The visibility matters. The conversations matter. The moment when women see themselves reflected in panels, posts and stages does matter.
But the real test is not who gets celebrated on the day. It is who gets backed when no one is watching. It is who gets paid properly when the room is empty. It is whose pitch gets funded when the panel has moved on. It is whose name comes up first when the opportunity is real and the budget is set.
That is where the work is. Not in the speech. In the spreadsheet, the contract, the calendar invite and the rate card.
If she is good enough to be on your stage, she is good enough to be paid like the men on the other stages.
The day will pass. The decisions will remain.
celebrate her on the day, back her on the other 364
Written by Samantha Gash, Founder of Her Trails
Trail Notes are perspectives and coaching journals written for women who train, race, run and lead. Made to be absorbed in ten minutes and remembered for a season.
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