Welcome to Inclusion Bites, your sanctuary for bold conversations that spark change. I'm Joanne Lockwood, your guide on this journey of exploration into the heart of inclusion, belonging, and societal transformation. Ever wondered what it truly takes to create a world where everyone not only belongs but thrives? You're not alone. Join me as we uncover the unseen, challenge the status quo, and share stories that resonate deep within. Ready to dive in? Whether you're sipping your morning coffee or winding down after a long day, let's connect, reflect, and inspire action together. Don't forget, you can be part of the conversation too. Reach out to jo.Lockwood@seechangehappen.co.uk to share your insights or to join me on the show. So adjust your earbuds and settle in.

It's time to ignite the spark of inclusion with Inclusion Bites. And today is episode 128 with the title, the future of gender equity. And I have the absolute honor and privilege to welcome Valentina Jaramillo. Valentina is an empowerment catalyst and an inclusion advocate, a communications expert, and dedicated diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging practitioner The passion for creating safe spaces where everyone can bring their true selves and develop their full return. When I asked Valentina to describe their inspirational superpower, they said that their superpower is their honesty and using it to share their lived experience without judging. They would also say they are a good listener, creating a safe space for people to talk to them. Hello, Valentina. Welcome to the show.

Hi, Jo. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

I am as well. It's great to chat to you in the green room and find out that, I'd also been to several of the places you've lived in in the US. So, yes, quite fascinating. So, Valentina, the future gender equity, tell me more about that.

Yes. The future of gender equity definitely goes beyond the binary and that means that it's not about just empowering women but actually having all genders represented. So I think the future of gender equity is that when we hear those 2 words, gender equity, we don't necessarily hear women and men, but we understand that gender goes more than that binary, that there are gender nonconforming, gender nonbinary, agender, that there is different expressions and identity of gender. So that's what we wanna do. Use all these lived experiences and empower them to have diverse perspectives and be the workplace be a place where everybody can thrive. So I think this is where the the gen the future of gender equity

Brilliant. Some of my listeners probably are unsure around gender diversity when it comes to non binary identities or agender because agender and non binary is often an umbrella term. It encompasses a whole load of different identities as well, doesn't it? So could you explain a little bit more about what it means to you maybe?

Yes. Totally. I will first go a little 1 step back and needs to explain that gender identity, gender expression, and sex assigned at birth are 3 different things. So gender identity is the way we see ourselves. Gender expression is the way we show up to the world, the way and this includes the way we dress, the way we talk, and many different things. And, sex assigned at birth is the sex that when we were born and they saw our genitals, the doctor said this is a boy or this is a girl and this is what commonly we see as gender, but it is not, so it is different. And then when we talk about gender diverse people are people who don't necessarily subscribe or what it means to me, right, to necessarily subscribe to this sex assigned at birth as the only information regarding gender identity. Right? So non binary, yes.