Throughout history, women have been conditioned to compromise and tone themselves down, hindering their voices from being heard. And today, women in the workplace are still compelled to temper their tone when communicating. Research shows that women apologize 10 times more than men, and have had to use self-undermining words such as “just” and “actually” in order to be seen more favorably.

To shine a light on how women are still compromising and overthinking the way they communicate today, we used the number-one form of communication at work—email. We created the Fe-mail Signature. We hacked the typical office email signature by designing an email plug-in that highlights the powerful words of history’s most accomplished and often unrecognized women. Using female voices of the past to inspire women of today to not compromise their own voice and communicate with confidence.

Within the Verizon company alone, over 4 million emails are sent every day. We saw this as a massive opportunity to empower and elevate women’s voices in the workplace, particularly in email. With the brand’s deep involvement in STEM and social justice programs, we selected historical women in these fields to inspire our employees to harness the power of their own voice.

The Fe-Mail Signature was rolled out to over 100,000 Verizon employees during Women’s History Month. The plug-in was housed in a microsite where users could download and activate the signature with one click. Anyone who received an email from an employee who had installed the Fe-mail Signature was able to easily download the signature for their own use. This created a chain effect, inspiring both sender and receiver with every email sent.

The Fe-Mail Signature is compatible with the three most-used email platforms: Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail. Our company leaders took to LinkedIn to invite everyone to download the email plug-in. To keep the conversation going, we partnered with professional communication coach and internet personality Farah Sharghi to create custom content helping women assert their voice at work. We also hosted a vodcast on social, featuring female leaders who shared their experiences in overcoming bias and finding your authentic voice.

Approximately 1 million emails were sent with the Fe-Mail Signature, rolled out to over 100,000 Verizon employees. The brand achieved a 164% increase in engagement rate, and a 95% positive sentiment on social. Our custom TikTok content was one of our top-performing videos for Q12024.