The Rise of #Microfeminism: What Is It?

We’re all very much aware that sexism in the workplace remains a serious  issue. Even in our modern working world, women are still underrepresented and in many industries female executives and CEOs are underpaid compared to their male counterparts.

This is nothing new, and neither are women’s efforts to combat it, with women recently bringing attention to a new social media trend doubling as a form of retaliation: ‘microfeminism’.

Microfeminism has become popular on short-form video sharing platform, TikTok with many women using ‘#Microfeminism’ to share the small, daily acts they partake in to fight back against sexism in the workplace, and empower female professionals along the way.

But what exactly is the significance of this trend and how can it impact the workplace as a whole? How should employers respond to ‘microfeminism’?

What is #Microfeminism?

Essentially, #Microfeminism is about small acts of female empowerment that may perhaps go unnoticed, but are subconsciously re-enforcing support for female professionals, in an effort to reverse the imbalance evident in many industries. 

The theory behind microfeminism is that in order for change to happen, it doesn’t always require grandiose gestures and actions, but rather starts through small, intentional daily actions that carry subliminal messaging related to female prioritisation.

Katie Wood, a corporate attorney who also runs a TikTok account on the side, took to the video sharing platform to explain her own definition of microfeminism, saying “instead of standing up, burning your bra and screaming at people, it’s little acts that make men p****d off”.

She then goes on to explain that she often implements microfeminism by referring to CEOs and professionals in leadership roles using the female pronouns she/her first. She explains, “By default it’s ‘she or her’ instead of ‘he or him’ unless I know the person and know it’s a man”.

The term ‘microfeminism’ first surfaced on TikTok when film producer, Ashley Chaney, posted a video on the platform in March, sharing her favourite form of microfeminism, captioning the video ‘Girl’s girl, corporate edition’. 

Her video highlighted subtle, yet powerful, reactions to everyday microaggressions against women, quickly capturing widespread attention and popularity, gaining over 280,000 likes on TikTok. 

In the video, Chaney said, “If I’m emailing a team I will always address the woman first in the actual email, so I’ll be like, ‘Hey Kathy and Joe'”, before ending the video by asking her followers what their favourite form of microfeminism is. This then went viral across other social media channels with women sharing what they tend to do on a daily basis to subtly empower women and hopefully tip the scales of inequality.

However, this hasn’t been confined to workplace behaviours, but has rather spread to all aspects of microfeminism acts outside the office. TikTok user @samspiegs shared an incident where she was approached by a man who asked her, “Are you Drew’s wife?”. Sam then flipped the script, responding to the man by saying, “No, Drew’s my husband”.

What’s its significance in the workplace?

While it’s only recently we’ve been able to attach a name to it through this growing online trend, microfeminism isn’t necessarily a new behaviour. Acts of feminism have been happening in workplaces far before TikTok was even a thing. 

Corporate female professionals have, for years, deliberately made pacts with other female colleagues to support each other in meetings or validate each other's points in boardrooms. It’s nothing that hasn’t already been happening.

However, this rising trend has given a voice to women around the world, growing into a wider movement that’s caused impactful discussions and positive action - and it’s not the first time we’ve seen similar activist movements grow through social media. 

The the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, for example, each brought with them a storm of real world protests and lasting change through increased exposure and engagement on social media. 

In the instance of #Microfeminism, however, the actions are usually subtle, appearing seemingly insignificant, but can have ongoing impact. This can be as simple as publicly backing a female colleague’s ideas instead of being passive, or resisting the urge to apologise about… well pretty much anything you shouldn’t be apologising for. 

In fact, a study conducted by the University of Waterloo found that female professionals who tend to apologise more frequently than male are attributed to having a lower threshold of what is considered offensive behaviour, which results from fear of being misunderstood and in the workplace. 

Is microfeminism effective in the workplace? 

Although oftentimes these small acts can go by unnoticed, mainly by male professionals, there’s an underlying significance to them as far as female empowerment and self-confidence are concerned.

It’s a well known fact that female CEOs and executives only constitute a very small part of leadership boards, so underrepresentation is a huge issue for women in the corporate world. For instance, women only made up 10.4% of CEOs that run Fortune 500 companies in 2023, which demonstrates an obvious imbalance between male and female professionals.

That said, #Microfeminism can encourage female professionals to actively support and advocate for one another, creating an environment and culture where they feel recognised and valued in the workplace.

How to recognise microaggressions

To address an issue head on, it’s vital that the source is firstly recognised. In the case of sexism in the workplace, it’s crucial for employers and employees alike to understand the different types of microaggressions female professionals have to deal with on a daily basis. 

Some forms of microaggression to look out for in a professional setting include:

•  Underestimating female professionals’ abilities to successfully perform a task to an equal level as a male professional would (e.g., consistently favouring a male colleague to perform various tasks over a female employee) 
• Calling female employees by seemingly endearing names, such as ‘sweetheart’ and ‘darling’, is often considered offensive and condescending 
• Benevolent sexism, where managers and individuals in leadership positions, don’t provide female employers with accurate feedback, in fear that they’re too 'weak and emotional' to handle constructive criticism 
• Invasion of personal space, including inappropriate touching as a form of sexual harassment. Under no circumstances should this be permitted. Rather, it should be addressed immediately and made clear that the behaviour is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.  
• 'Mansplaining' is a very common type of microaggression, where male individuals address female colleagues in a patronising and condescending way, when offering up an unsolicited opinion. 

How should employers respond to this trend?

It’s important for organisations to recognise that equality in the workplace is not purely up to female professionals to address, but rather a responsibility for everyone to promote.

In order to achieve this, there are certain actions that business leaders can employ to effectively support this trend and showcase support. For example,

1) In a meeting:

 Managers should bring women who have been interrupted by male colleagues back into the conversion. Where necessary, immediately stopping the male by saying, “sorry, Katie (for example) was in the middle of her argument, you can say your point once she’s concluded her own”.

2) Email communication:

When emailing the whole company or a group of employees, in order to avoid microaggression and keep a system of constancy, email recipients should be included in alphabetical order by their names, and make it a standard practice. 

Also making sure that inclusive language is always used and keeping everything gender neutral is another effective way in achieving this.

3) Whistle blowing:

Above all, systems must be in place to provide support to female professionals who feel like they’re victims of stereotypes and microaggressions, such as whistle blowing, where they feel safe to raise such instances, guaranteeing confidentiality. 

All in all, the issue of gender inequality in professional settings is an issue which persists and one that must continuously be addressed in an effort to combat it. There’s no one-fits-all type of solution, but rather on ongoing endeavour to address cases of microaggression and show strong support to equality and diversity. It’s essential that women feel actively supported and encouraged to speak up. 

Encourage your organisation’s female professionals by enrolling on a 100% online CIPD HR qualification to set the right policies in place.