Thinking on Women's Equality
International Women's Day Q&A with Gill-Whitty Collins
As part of our celebrations for International Women’s Day, we are highlighting some of our female authors through our quick-fire Q&A.
What is a quick-fire Q&A?
We have our interviewee pick a number at random (between 1-42) and we ask them the general question listed next to it. Shortly after we switch to asking book-specific questions (1-22), to give you a brief insight into our wonderful writers and their books.
Today we join Gill Whitty-Collins as she answers our questions about her life and her book Why Men Win at Work.
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What is your favourite breakfast?
There is my favourite breakfast and then there's what I have. My favourite breakfast is a full English with veggie sausages. But what I actually have is a banana.
Have you always wanted to be an author?
No. I really wasn't one of those people who thought I was going to write a book. But the gender equality issue was just so important to me. I felt I had to write the book about it because I had things to share that would be really useful for women, for men, for everyone.
I made myself a promise that when I left my last job, that's what I would do. I would write Why Men Win at Work.
What is your favourite word?
Independence.
What is the most difficult thing about being an author?
I think the most difficult thing is not the actual writing of the book. I enjoy that. I really enjoy locking myself away and getting things down.
I think the most difficult thing about it is all the stuff around it, all the marketing and PR work that needs doing to get people to read the book. Getting people to see it in the mass of all the books they could be reading is very, very hard. A huge amount of time goes into that.
What is your biggest fear?
My biggest fear in life is being stuck in a confined space. I am claustrophobic. Even if I watch something on TV and somebody is in a confined space, I start to hyperventilate.
What are your three favourite books?
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I could read it forever.
Cousin Bette by Honoré de Balzac. He was my favourite author when I was studying French at Cambridge and I wrote my dissertation about Balzac.
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado-Perez, which I think is possibly the best feminist book ever written.
What is what was your favourite subject in school?
French. I've loved France from five years old. I love the French language. I think it's beautiful. French was also the subject I found easiest.
What do you wish you had known before starting the writing process for Why Men Win at Work?
I wish that I'd known something about how the publishing world works. For me, it was a case of I have things to write about gender equality, diversity and the issue of equality. I know what I want to call it. I know what my chapters are. I had no idea what you're really supposed to do.
However, I'm kind of glad I didn't because I think my naivete led me to the book that I wrote.
What was your favourite thing about writing this book?
The actual writing. I would lock myself away and I would say to myself “today, I'm going to write about this”. Then literally feel myself going into a different state. It was almost like my fingers were doing something that I didn't know of.
It's one of the reasons why writers say you have to show up so that the inspiration will come. The next day I would go back and reread what I'd written the day before, and I think it's blooming good that.
What is something people would not know about this book just by reading it?
That is a really difficult question. I like to think that I have everything in there that they could possibly want to know.
I can tell you what they wouldn't know about it just by reading the title. I think a lot of people see the title and they think it's going to be anti-men. When you read the book, you realise very quickly that it's written for men just as much as it is for women.
Why did you choose the cover that you did?
The joy of the cover decisions. It was designed by a friend. We were really struggling with the cover. I remember calling him and I told him the title of the book when he said, “I've already got something.” The next day he sent us a draft. He'd realized, as I was talking, the opportunity for the letters and the opportunity for the career ladders within that.
We tried lots of different colours and we had a big debate about that. It was Gavin (the director of Luath Press) who said it should be Suffragette violet. It looked fantastic.
How did you celebrate the publication of this book?
Champagne.
I have a big love of champagne. I have various levels of champagne for different occasions. I have my entry-level champagne. Champagne for a Friday evening. Then I have Laurent Perrier Rosé, my favourite. This was a Laurent Perrier Rosé celebration.
What emotional reaction did you expect people to have to this book?
I expected women to not necessarily be surprised by anything in it but to really recognize it.
They weren't surprised by all the experiences, but the data was surprising. For example, fewer than 10% of the leadership positions in the world are held by women and the extent of the pay gap, all of the data is quite alarming
What I hoped was that men would pick it up and they would appreciate its inclusiveness. I have so many men who write to me and say, “thank you for writing this. You have really helped me see this in a way I've never seen it before, and I am now absolutely signed up to drive equality because I believe in it.”
It's fantastic when people respond the way that you thought.
