Stock photos are everywhere, from advertisements to news sites, but the way they portrayed working women has remained the same for years. That is until now, through a new venture between Getty Images and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s LeanIn.org.
The special LeanIn.org Collection features 2,500 new images of women in contemporary leadership and working roles. Proceeds from the photos will go to adding more to the collection and to helping LeanIn.org, Sandberg’s nonprofit that promotes empowering women.
“When we see images of women and girls and men, they often fall into the stereotypes that we’re trying to overcome, and you can’t be what you can’t see,” Sandberg told the New York Times.
The photos are very different than old stock photos of women with clunky cell phones and powersuits. Instead, women are seen lifting weights, painting, working on tablets and being soldiers.
Sandberg has renewed the conversation about women in the workplace with her book Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead. Hillary Rodham Clinton has also spurred on the topic, since it’s widely speculated that she’ll run for President in 2016.
By changing the way Getty’s stock photos see women, the new images will be seen by millions. Getty ahs 2.4 million customers and its collection includes 150 million images. “Women,” “business” and “family” are even the top three search terms on the site.
According to CNBC, Sandberg was recently at the first “Makers Conference,” which covered women in the workplace. She told the site that LeanIn’s top goal is helping businesses realize that women do face barriers that need to be broken down and that women in major roles will help their business.
image: Wikimedia Commons
