Stock photos of women primarily consist of skinny white ladies laughing alone with salad, being mean mommies and struggling to drink water -- which makes illustrating any story about women's actual lives very difficult. But Getty Images and Sheryl Sandberg's organization, Lean In, are seeking to change that. (Stock photos are a particular source of despair and hilarity here at HuffPost Women, so we could not be more thrilled.)
Getty and Lean In have teamed up to release a new stock photo gallery with 2,500 powerful images breaking down stereotypes about gender roles, called the "Lean In Collection."
"The stock imagery around women is embarrassing," Jessica Bennett, contributing editor at LeanIn.org, said in a press release. "You can't be what you can't see, so if women and girls are not seeing images of powerful women and girls who are leaders, then they may not aspire to become that."
Current stock photo creators have some truly ridiculous ideas about what stressed women look like, how women use umbrellas, how women spend Thanksgiving and what it looks like when women grill. Stock photos also rely heavily on stereotypes, often making it difficult to find positive images of women who are not thin and white. (Case in point: in the world of stock photos, bosses are almost exclusively male, middle-aged and white.)
We've known for a while now that we need to broaden our imagination when we depict powerful women. Here's hoping this partnership will offer an opportunity for just that.
Stock Images From The "Lean In" Collection:
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