This Instagram Account Will Add Brown Girl Power To Your Feed
‘Brown Girl Working’ (BGW) is an Instagram love letter to the strength and ambition of brown working women. Featuring profiles of doctors, engineers, teachers, lawyers, shopkeepers, athletes, and more, the page shares their struggles and achievements, and offers perspective, support, encouragement and inspiration for desi women across the globe – things that we could all do with a little more of.
With not too much information available on its profile, we got in touch with the creator of the page – Siddhakanksha Mishra, a Mumbai-based freelancer and budding social entrepreneur to learn more about BGW.
“As an Indian woman, I desperately seek role models that I can relate to”, Mishra comments, “so I thought of creating a platform where women and girls from different walks of life could be featured, which would help reinforce their agency and voice within the Indian context.”
Mishra tells us, “Earlier I used to seek out women to feature, now women themselves come forward and approach me to get featured. Their sheer confidence in self and the fact that they want to put themselves out there is very validating to my work. They aren’t modest anymore about their successes and achievements, boldly fading out the age-old social conditioning that demands them to play low key.”
Although initially created with an intent to engage with the Indian diaspora, BGW soon became inclusive of all brown women around the world. “As culturallythey face the same issues as Indian women, I decided to universalise this initiative,” Mishra says.
When questioned about featuring women of all classes and castes, Mishra comments that she really wants to, but hasn’t figured out how best to do so. So far, she has approached women through their social media platforms or on streets/ public places, to try and represent brown women from all walks of life.
“But I stick by one rule for my page – I never mention the surnames of the women I feature” she points out. “I don’t want to delve into creating a narrative of a brown woman’s work based on her social identity.
“My larger goal is to make all brown voices heard irrespective of class and caste, through the lens of livelihood and empowerment.”
Apart from empowering girls and women, the page has also successfully reached young boys and men who are inspired by the stories of these women.
“When I started the page, I wanted to also make sure that I represent women from industries that are dominated by men. In doing so, I wanted to normalize the idea that women can literally and actively work in any field as assets validating the notion of equality for men and boys to experience,” she says. “And there are many men who write to me saying that the page inspires them greatly! I’m glad I’m able to feature female role models for men to look up to.”
Mishra hopes to take her initiative forward by launching a Women’s Empowerment website that would help women find jobs, community support, access to crucial resources (like single-women housing, legal advice, therapy, etc.) I’m in the initial stages of chalking out this plan as a possible start up for the future,” she signs off.
