New Honor Society Launches #notsorry on International Women’s Day

From the desk of Heidi Singleton, Chief Creative Officer, New Honor Society

The other day I was in a meeting to discuss a marketing strategy for one of our clients. One of the team members in the room, a wicked smart and exceptionally talented female copywriter started a sentence with, “Sorry, can I ask a dumb question…” Not a minute later, another female coworker, an Account Director who oversees a team of 16, starting speaking and, when she was interrupted, said, “Sorry, you go ahead.” It’s shocking to think that in an agency where over 60% of its employees are incredibly smart, empowered women, we are constantly apologizing for ourselves.

Turns out, we aren’t alone.

Women are conditioned from a young age to be polite, ask permission and not take up too much space. And “sorry” has become the word we use – often unconsciously – to adhere to those societal expectations, especially in the workplace. But every time we say “sorry,” when we have nothing to actually apologize for, it undermines our worth and makes our ideas, opinions and questions seem less valuable. Studies show that while both men and women use the word “sorry,” the threshold for the word’s use is much lower in women.

Sorry, but that word has got to go.

From now on, we’re not sorry for speaking up, we’re not sorry for having a different opinion, we’re not sorry to ask for what we need, and we’re definitely not sorry for taking up space.

In honor of International Women’s Day, we created NotSorry.com to help women everywhere break this sorry habit once and for all. Won’t you join us?