SeeHer, the largest global movement to eliminate gender bias in advertising and entertainment, partnered with Gold House, the leading Asian and Pacific Islander changemaker community, the goal of highlighting the importance of increasing accurate portrayals of Asian and Pacific Islander (API) women and girls in advertising and entertainment.
A recent survey showed that 73% of Asian women feel that persisting stereotypes are the biggest barrier to gender equality. Further, only 18% of API women say women are shown as successful. With this in mind, the organizations came together to provide concrete solutions that would bring awareness and ensure accurate representation to this community, as well as uplift voices in the community through events and panels, and a well-research guide focused on API characters.
The first step of this partnership was highlighted through the SeeHer Award at the Inaugural Gold House Gala. The honor was presented to Michelle Yeoh on behalf of her groundbreaking onscreen roles and portrayal of women, along with her offscreen advocacy. Her personal mission and public work aligns with the organization’s mission to promote accurate depictions of women and girls in media. At the gala, it was also announced that the SeeHer and Gold House #WriteHerRight Guide, focused on API female characters, would be published later that year. Since the announcement of the guide, they worked diligently to recruit API women in the media and advertising field to take the survey to create the most accurate results, which would allow for the strongest recommendations.
In the lead up to the guide, SeeHer and Gold House partnered on a panel during Advertising Week, which focused on the importance of accurate API female representation. This powerhouse panel – The panel consisted of Padma Lakshmi, Eva Chen, Geena Rocero, Janice Min, and Jeannine Shao Collins - shared their experiences as API women in entertainment, media, and advertising.
The SeeHer #WriteHerRight Guide was then released in December 2022. The guide includes key insights, resources, and solutions to help creatives establish genuine, nuanced depictions of API women across their work. The guide also features key questions for creatives to consider when depicting API women, encouraging storytellers to consider differences between East Asian, Southeast Asian, South Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander women, as well as those of mixed-race backgrounds.
The goal to both bring awareness to the need of accurate representation and create tools to implement these changes at a foundational level were achieved through educational, in-person events and the wide release of the #WriteHerRight guide.
The inaugural SeeHer Award at the Gold House Gala celebrated Michelle Yeoh, a strong and inspirational figure worldwide. This stage was used to educate and celebrate, bringing media attention within entertainment, business, and pop-culture circles.
This honor will now be awarded to an API woman each year, continuing the mission and elevating women making a difference in this space.
The powerhouse panel of thought-leaders at Advertising Week brought attention to the issues API women face within media as a whole and discussed the researched strategies that will make lasting and contagious changes from the inside. This resulted in wide interest from businesses and entertainment studios, among others, to join the movement and sign-up to receive the #WriteHerRight Guide.
The revolutionary and well-researched guide was then released in December 2022 to extensive interest. The accuracy was achieved through the organization’s ability to recruit 1,600 women to take the survey, which resulted in one of the largest studies ever conducted on portrayals of API women across East Asian, Southeast Asian, and South Asian communities, as well as Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders (NHPIs) and those of mixed-race backgrounds. In addition, points discussed during Michelle Yeoh’s speech at the Gold House Gala and the Advertising Week panel were incorporated into the guide to further enhance accuracy from first-person experiences. SeeHer also enlisted the partnership of AMC, Meta, and Paramount, among others, who have agreed to utilize this guide in projects moving forward.
