In this presentation, @billiegeena shares data and advice for protecting female members of staff from sexism. We will cover: - Stats around sexism in the industry - Examples of sexism - How to evidence sexism - How to support your female colleagues - How as a business owner you can support your female colleagues

1. Client Bias:
Another Battle
for Women in
SEO

2. Billie Geena Hyde
Learning & Development Manager
- SALT.agency
@Billiegeena

3. In this presentation;
● Stats around sexism in the
industry
● Examples of sexism
● How to evidence sexism
● How to support your female
colleagues
● How as a business owner
you can support your female
colleagues
@billiegeena // SALT.agency

4. I ran a series of polls and had
308 Women / female presenting people,
who are either freelance or agency SEOs participate
@billiegeena // SALT.agency

5. "Have you experienced sexism from Clients".
@billiegeena // SALT.agency

6. Was the sexism you faced obvious sexism or
micro aggressions? Or was it a mix?
@billiegeena // SALT.agency

7. Was the sexism you faced from a man, woman or the
whole business?
@billiegeena // SALT.agency

8. Did you feel the sexism was specific to you, general
ignorance or a predetermined bias
@billiegeena // SALT.agency

9. What role was the client in within their business?
@billiegeena // SALT.agency

10. After the situation(s) occurred did you feel supported by your
colleagues and company
@billiegeena // SALT.agency

11. Do you think enough action was taken?
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12. What action would you have liked to have seen?
@billiegeena // SALT.agency

13. Examples of Sexism

14. I was leading on a client and working with several colleagues, the client
was ok-ish, but for some reason whenever I sent them an email, they
would not respond to me but to my male colleague.
They also kept removing me from email chains.

15. "My agency landed this new client and I had sent them a welcome
email, with a quick intro and to arrange a call with them. The client
immediately phoned our contracts team to complain and told them that
I was not senior enough to be working on their project.
I am a senior specialist…"

16. "I was in a meeting with a client’s leadership team discussing their
plans to hire a part-time marketing manager. The MD (male) suggested
the part-time hours might be a good fit for someone returning to work
after maternity leave.
He then turned to me and said, “maybe you should get pregnant and
come and work for us”."

17. "I was working with a client with a male co-worker who was
a content SEO-- I was the technical SEO. The client
consistently asked my male co-worker all the technical
questions because I "didn't seem technical"

18. "I had this client, he phoned me constantly. He'd bring
external frustrations to the call and blame me for them. He
would scream at me for not completing, already completed
pieces of work, and he go me down.
If I tried to end the call or just protect myself from his
abuse, he'd then call me mardy, or say don’t get huffy and
complain that I am unable to take criticism."

19. I work in a very small agency where there’s just three people and we’re
all women. For International Women’s day content, we were told by
one of our clients, a room of six men, that our previous efforts weren’t
good enough and told us what they wanted to see on IWD…it was
unoriginal, condescending and boring as an idea but we had to do
what the client wanted…at NO point did they ask us, the only women in
the room, what would speak to us on IWD…they then tweaked and
tweaked until it was ready to go…at 9pm on IWD itself

20. Advice for dealing with sexist clients

21. Make Someone Aware
If you have a client who is been sexist towards you. I’d recommend
speaking to someone you work with who can support you, whether it’s
your manager, a big boss, HR or someone else.
Your employers need to be aware and they can support you with these
situations. They may have processes in places that will look after your
wellbeing
If they aren't supportive, do you really want to work for them?
@billiegeena // SALT.agency

22. Record Conversations
If you believe that your client is likely to act in an
inappropriate manner during a call, you could record the
call for evidence, however, you MUST state that your call
is recorded. I recommend OBS screen recording software
to do this
@billiegeena // SALT.agency

23. Ending a video call
"What you are saying is not appropriate, I am now
recording this conversation. If you would like this meeting
to continue, we need to get back on track and talk about
SEO.
If you are going to continue with this, I am going to
terminate this conversation.
@billiegeena // SALT.agency

24. We do not tolerate bad behaviour
If they continue, hang up. Send an email, stating
the same that the call was counter-productive and
inappropriate. You will continue the call when
they speak to you appropriately.
@billiegeena // SALT.agency

25. How to be an ally

26. The only things like this will change is by us all working
together and having the support from male team
members. We need you to be our allies.
We need your opinions; we need you to help us to gather
evidence.
@billiegeena // SALT.agency

27. The project lead is being ignored in favour of a male colleague.
"Good Morning
In regards to your question, I am not able to make decisions like this
for your campaign as I am not the lead on this. I have forwarded this
on to @name.
Please, can you send future questions to your account manager
@”name” (cc’d) and she/they will be able to help you.
Thanks
Name"
@billiegeena // SALT.agency

28. Question behaviour
“Good Morning,
I hope you are well,
I have forwarded your question/request to the project lead, @”name”
Can I ask, is there a reason that you are directing your questions to me
rather than your account manager?
Thanks
Name”
@billiegeena // SALT.agency

29. It's not easy to just drop a client

30. It’s hard to protect your female members of staff. You can’t just drop
a client because they’re sexist unless you have substantial evidence.
Contracts stop you from doing that and that’s hard for an employee to
understand.
Whilst a client can drop an agency with no reason needed, we can’t do
the same back. We can only stop acting for a client with good reason
and on reasonable notice, or with the client’s consent. If we say the
reason is sexism, we have to have proof or we can get in legal
trouble.
@billiegeena // SALT.agency

31. As a business owner you can;
● State unacceptable behaviours in your contract and include a
clause that states that the contract will be cancelled if breeched.
● Vet your clients, look at the behaviours online? Are they really the
people you want your business connected to?
● Fight for your employees.
@billiegeena // SALT.agency

32. If you protect and fight for your
team, they will be loyal to you.
@billiegeena // SALT.agency

33. We are not crying wolf

34. We are not being dramatic

35. Woman are consistently mistreated

36. Let's change shit.

37. If you want to talk about sexism,
being an ally or anything else
@billiegeena
Nearly anywhere on social media