On Sunday, women disappeared from advertisements and newsstands around New York City, and the hashtag #NotThere trended on Twitter.
It was all part of an effort by No Ceilings, a project of the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, to highlight the lack of progress for women and girls worldwide, coinciding with International Women’s Day on Sunday. The Clinton Foundation released a report on the status of women and girls which showed that although great strides have been made by women over the last two decades, there is still much progress to go.
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The awareness campaign, called “Not There,” asked individuals and media organizations to temporarily remove women’s images from their homepages, billboards, magazine covers, and more, and filling the empty space left behind with just the words not-there.org. Media outlets participating included Vogue, W Magazine, Glamour, Self, Brides, Mashable.com and many others. Women’s images were also absent from billboards and other advertisements around New York City.
On social media, the campaigns asked users to change their Twitter profile picture to their logo, which is an image of a faceless woman’s silhouette and the words not-there.org. As of Sunday evening, there were over 6,400 tweets using the hashtag #NotThere, including Hillary Clinton, Melinda Gates, model Kate Upton, and model Karlie Kloss. Additionally, the campaign included a Snapchat component, featuring short videos of Hillary and Chelsea Clinton posted on the messaging app’s “Discover” platform.
The campaign also featured a PSA with the voices of celebrities Amy Poehler, Cameron Diaz, Jenny Slate, and Sienna Miller talking about the need to continue fighting for gender equality. In keeping with the “not there” theme, the actresses were notably not seen on screen in the PSA -- they provided the voiceover narration, but the visuals featured empty rooms and empty chairs.
The entire effort drove back to the Not There website, where visitors were encouraged to read highlights from the Clinton Foundation’s report, entitled “No Ceilings: The Full Participation Project.” The report, funded by the Clinton Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, includes a wealth of datas on global women’s issues such as lack of paid maternity leave, maternal health, child marriage, equal pay, the lack of women in leadership roles, violence against women, and more. The full report is now available on the No Ceiling Website.