The power of numbers: Woman, know your stats

Cathrine Berendt sits on a hot bench, drenched in sunshine, in front of the University of Copenhagen’s (UCPH) centre for innovation Lighthouse where she has office space.

She is the woman behind the Instagram profile ‘Woman know your statistics’ Kvinde kend din statistik (@kvindekenddinstat), which has over 32,000 followers. She is a public speaker, a newly graduated sociologist, and founder of the company Lige, which means ‘equal’.

»Most people want gender equality, and many believe we already have it,« says Cathrine Berendt. It’s this widespread misconception — that the genders are equal in Denmark — that pushed her to become an entrepreneur. With hard-hitting data revealing gender inequality, Cathrine Berendt works to spell out the truth every day.

There has always been a feminist in Cathrine Berendt. But she gives due credit to UCPH for spurring her into action when she, last winter, completed her master’s degree in sociology.

She grew up on the Stevns promontory, south of Copenhagen, where gender and feminism are not really talked about. And with one foot out in the countryside and the other at university, she came to realise how wide the gap is between the two worlds:

»At university, we obsessively talked about it all the time — measured it and tried to solve it. But when you leave university, it’s just not something people talk about, especially where I’m from, away from Copenhagen,« she says.

»If I was at a family birthday party and some uncle claimed that we already have gender equality, I’d be sitting there thinking: I’ve spent the last six months reading studies and statistics that show the exact opposite,« she says, and adds:

»And you can only solve a problem once you recognise that it exists.«

Students, start your own business

When I asked how you become an entrepreneur when you are studying, Cathrine Berendt answered with a laid-back poise: »It was dead easy, it was just a matter of setting up an Instagram profile«.

It was actually during an internship at a crisis centre for women affected by violence that the distinctly feminist atmosphere there motivated her to start her profile.

I’ve chosen statistics, which you might call a traditionally masculine form of argumentation

Entrepreneur and sociologist Cathrine Berendt

In the beginning, she would just take a photo of the statistics that struck her the most, circle the most important part — and post it. Since then, she has added her own aesthetic touch to the platform, which today appears visually well-curated in a sleek — pink — visual style.

»I’ve chosen statistics, which you might call a traditionally masculine form of argumentation — which is interesting, because it’s the form of argument that has the most authority today. And maybe that’s why I’ve been relatively successful,« she says.

Looking back at what she has communicated through her platform, Cathrine Berendt recognises that the negative statistics outweigh the positive ones. A typical research bias, she believes:

»You rarely read a report about something positive. Because once something stops hurting, we stop looking at it,« she says, referring to a study that shows it will take 135 years before complete gender equality is achieved in Denmark — if everything continues as it is.

Hard-hitting statistics

With the numbers she shares, she wants to fill a gap in the gender equality debate. Because in Denmark, they are not good enough at collecting data, they don’t measure enough, and they hardly talk about the things we do measure, she says.

If Cathrine had to point to one statistic that everyone should know, it would be a survey from the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, which shows that one in three Danish women has been subjected to sexual violence. Denmark is above the European average here, she says with a deep sigh.

»One thing is what women are subjected to — another is that all women change their behaviour to avoid offensive or unpleasant situations. It’s wild that men only realise this fear among women when they become fathers to daughters, and that’s why I wish we talked more about it,« says Cathrine Berendt.

What provokes Cathrine Berendt the most are generalising, reductive, and old-fashioned ideas about what women are like today. This just assumes that people are a certain way just because they have certain chromosomes, she says.

»But this said, I find it hard to see how we can talk about gender without talking about gender. And I don’t think it works just to close our eyes to it. What I believe works is becoming aware of the problems,« she says.

And the statistics seem to have a powerful ability to raise awareness. Men who have come across her profile have often sent her messages like: wow, I really like your approach, because it’s factual and easy to understand, she says.

Bright ideas also cast shadows

As the profile gained momentum, so did Cathrine Berendt’s own life — perhaps a bit too much, even.

»So I actually suffered from stress. I don’t know whether it was the Instagram profile or my internship job. I became aware of how the working world is structured, and to be completely honest, I found it pretty overwhelming to realise that you’re expected to be on the clock from 8 to 4,« she says, adding with her characteristic touch of self-irony that it’s »a very Generation Z thing to say.«

What the hell do I do now, she asked herself, because at that point she couldn’t even imagine returning to full-time studies. She found the answer on the UCPH website: Do an internship in your own business, it said, enticingly.

Her master’s programme in sociology was then set off with a six-month internship — this time in her own consultancy company, Lige. And this time round, a full-time internship wasn’t so overwhelming. She »got well again by becoming an entrepreneur,« she says.

Cathrine Berendt has clearly spent more time on her business than on her studies. But as the hours added up, and her ambitions increased, it had a social cost, she says. She didn’t have time to hang out with friends and drink beer in the sun.

»To be completely honest, I’ve often felt quite lonely and feel like I’ve missed out. Some people look at me and say they wish they had achieved what I have at 25. But I look at them and think they’ve had some amazing experiences — been to loads of festivals and developed lasting friendships at university.«

The feminist’s mistake

The price of her success was stress and loneliness, but Cathrine Berendt wouldn’t have done it any differently if she had the chance again. Because she learned something she needed to learn:

»There is nothing more important than taking care of yourself. No matter how passionate you are about your work or how worthy your goal is. You can’t save the world if you don’t remember to take care of yourself. If the plane goes down, you need to remember to put on your own oxygen mask first.«

She wouldn’t recommend that others spend so many hours alone every day.

»It’s lonely, and humans are social creatures,« she says, describing the loneliness as by far her biggest challenge.

She wishes the circumstances had been a bit more favourable — and that there were more female entrepreneurs at UCPH who she could exchange ideas with, and identify with. If she had one piece of advice for her female companions, it would be this:

»Remember sisterhood solidarity. It might have a bit of an old-school feminist vibe about it, but help each other. Support female entrepreneurs, female researchers, support your female employees — the ones who might be able to rise to positions of leadership.«

Instead of stepping on each other to get ahead, Cathrine Berendt wishes more women were better at lifting one another up.

To the men, Cathrine Berendt offers an open invitation:

»Get more involved in gender equality, join the debate, join the party,« she says, and points to the best piece of advice that she herself has ever got. Advice that could ease the anxiety many feel when it comes to discussions about gender equality:

»Accept and acknowledge that all people make mistakes and do sexist things. If you’re a feminist, people expect you to be perfect and to never say or do anything that contradicts feminism. But I think part of the anxiety we have around this conversation comes from the belief that you’re not allowed to make — or admit — mistakes. But you are. You just also need to be able to own up to them.«

And in line with this piece of advice, Cathrine Berendt encourages anyone who has the slightest inkling to start a business, to give it a go:

»Just do it. Try. It’s the perfect time to start a business if you’re studying and living on a student grant. And when you’re setting up a knowledge-based business like I have — through social media — it’s both free and risk-free, with expenses close to zero. That means everything you do is a gain, and that’s a wild entrepreneurial reality,« she says.

For UCPH students, she recommends taking advantage of its internship scheme, so they don’t end up »cross-eyed from focusing on too many things at once,« as she puts it.

»That’s something I am damn well going to change«

Back when Cathrine Berendt took her first step and set up her Instagram profile, she dreamt of becoming a public speaker. Since then, her dream — and an entire business — has become a reality.

»One thing is that I have lots of ideas. Another is that I actually act on the ideas I get. Otherwise, nothing happens,« she says.

Now that her speaking engagements have taken off, Cathrine Berendt dreams of writing a book and launching her own podcast. But the path toward those new goals needs to be laid out more sensibly than when she, for example, wrote her thesis and didn’t have time to see other people.

»I have to be honest — there were a lot of months that weren’t that great. So I told myself: that’s something I am damn well going to change once I finished. The social life has to be a priority.«

If Cathrine Berendt has always had a feminist in her, there’s also been a determined entrepreneur quietly growing alongside. As she puts it: »As a human being, you’re always thinking, what’s next?«

This article was written in Danish and published on 7 August. It has been translated into English and post-edited by Mike Young.