This TED Talk features gender equity consultant Sarah Sanford, recorded live at TEDx Seattle, 2018.

A few years ago, I had a corporate feminist dream job, launching a company's national initiative to recruit more female employees in the finance sector.

But first, I had to get the signed-off support of all department heads.

So I spent months perfecting the proposal, presented it, and won the support of almost everyone.

But in this team, there were two men will call Howard and Tom.

Howard just would not get back to me. I emailed him about the proposal. I left him voice

mails. I'd roll my chair back and forth during meetings trying to make eye contact with

Howard. He'd just take out his phone and start scrolling.

And then I started to question myself,

had I been diplomatic enough in that email,

too demanding in that voicemail?

Does Howard hate this proposal?

Or am I just overreacting?

It's probably just me, I thought. And then one day, I'm walking down the hall, and here comes Howard.

He's holding a packet of papers, sees me, and lights up. He says, Sarah, Tom just emailed this to me.

You should take a look.

It's a proposal for us to recruit more women.

I think Tom is a really great idea here,

and we should all get behind it.

Howard proceeds to hand my own proposal back to me

and explains to me the many merits of what I wrote.

Howard was never against recruiting more women,

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