Today’s woman of the week focuses on a personality at the forefront of our collaborative fight against gender inequality in the media and culture industry. Amanda de Cadenet is a photographer and entertainment host turned entrepreneur, who now runs digital media company Girlgaze. She grew up in London, and has since developed her career in Los Angeles, becoming a renowned photographer in the entertainment industry. While she started out as a co-host and actress, De Cadenet blossomed in her photography career and used her platform as a means to advance her dedication toward advancing gender equality. She has since been acclaimed for her honesty and authenticity in an otherwise often superficial and fake industry. With her company, she has “made it a point to bring as many women as possible” alongside her “to work in roles that are traditionally male”. Her mission as CEO is to eliminate barriers to entry and success for women in the photography industry, so as to “put more women behind the camera to tell our stories, and to build community and support”.
As she pursues the growth of her company, she is set on hiring women based on passion and enthusiasm; she proactively hires girls and women who might traditionally be perceived as being unqualified. In a world where inequality is gaining a promising amount of attention, her approach to recruitment deserves extensive recognition. Women are often disadvantaged even before they embark on their careers, so it is incredibly important to offer them job opportunities that enable them to develop their abilities and industry-specific credit––women will never be sufficiently enabled to break glass ceilings if they are fundamentally less experienced due to premature stereotyping and gender bias in entry-level jobs.
In 2017, she published the book #girlgaze: How Girls See the World, which has been highly praised and appreciated as a vehicle to highlight the photographic talent across Generation Z women. She offers encouraging words for women embarking not only on a career in the media and culture industry, but to women in general: “for me, the insights and wisdom gained from surviving the hardships, are what have defined my unique point of view. We all have one, you do too.” As we all try to find our place, purpose and prosperity in life, Amanda de Cadenet is an inspiration; her uncompromising dedication toward gender equality and unapologetic attitude about the hardships faced by women across the world is a refreshing approach to the disparities we still face as women.
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