We invited some of the most innovative women in business and media to discuss the place of gender today

To coincide with the launch of The Gender Issue we held a forum in New York, discussing hot issues driving gender equality forward; from inequality in the workplace to the disruptive role of social media in addressing sexist advertising.  

"What's hard is to go into Fortune 500 companies and shift things from within these institutions,"  said Vivian Rosenthal, CEO of Snaps and chief founder of Google incubator, 30 Weeks. "There's a lot of interest in creating change, but there has to be some movement to create change within these organisations.”  

Amy Cross, editor and founder of women-owned media platform, Vitamin W and the Buy Up Index, and Amanda Parkes from fashion innovation hub, Manufacture New York, both echoed Rosenthal’s sentiments, by stressing the need for women in senior positions across all businesses.  

Christine Huang, Youtube’s trends research lead, and Elisa Kreisinger, creative director at media site, Upworthy, also spoke of the role of online video platforms in spurring on the gender equality movement at the event. “YouTube allows people who have opinions to spread them in an amplified way,” explained Huang. "There are 150,000 videos about feminism on YouTube at moment so the conversation is louder than it's ever been before. Focusing on the positive or negative is not the point, it's more about the fact that it's happening.”

Protein further explored the shifting landscape of gender roles in the tech industry in aid of our Gender Report with a Forum at SXSW. Stay tuned for upcoming video documentation from the night.