Avivah Wittenberg-Cox* says there are three simple steps to engaging men in building better gender balance in the workplace.
The organiser of a big women’s finance conference was asking how to ensure that men attended.
The design and industry head of a large automotive company was trying to get a largely male leadership team to buy into his gender balance strategy.
The head of a legal sector association was trying to get the sector to gender balance law firm partnerships.
How, they were all asking me, do they get men engaged, convinced and on board?
The short answer?
Turn balance into a business issue run by leaders.
After 15 years working with mostly male executive teams and CEOs across the globe and across sectors, here are three simple steps to engaging men in building better gender balance.
- Don’t call them ‘champions’
A lot of women’s networks and women’s conferences are trying to bring men into the debate by awarding them congratulatory titles and awards.
This is understandable since women are increasingly impatient with the idea that “fixing sexism is women’s work”.
The trouble with this strategy is that men then become a range of mildly heroic beings, with titles like ‘champions’ and ‘allies’ to masculinise the otherwise suspect notion of appearing to be a feminist.
This is embarrassing for women, as it puts them in the rather traditional role of rewarding good male behaviour with female admiration and applause.
It’s also embarrassing for men, write W. Brad Johnson and David G. Smith, as “these efforts often reveal reluctance, if not palpable anxiety among targeted men”.
“Sexism is a system, and while it’s a system that privileges men, it also polices male behaviour.”
The unintended consequence of this well-meaning approach is that it makes gender balance seem like a crusade requiring brave champions and heroes.
This leaves the rest in enemy territory.
While male role models are absolutely necessary in getting other men engaged, it’s worth treading carefully into this terrain.
Rather than making male support for gender balance the exception, the goal is to make it the norm.
How do you normalise and mainstream gender balance among … everyone?
By using existing male-dominated hierarchies.
It’s about getting all leaders to reframe the issue for all men and managers.
Reframe: Gender balance delivers better performance and returns.
If leaders are accountable, gender balance is part of their mandate.
Let’s call them leaders. Period.
- Make it a business issue, not a diversity dimension
If you’re framing gender balance as a diversity issue, a women’s issue, or a moral principle, you’re setting yourself up to fail – at least in terms of making it a shared responsibility.
Leaders are often tempted to argue gender balance as a moral imperative.
But in the corporate setting, if you want to get a broad base of support for balance from men, the business case is a more effective frame.
A feminist-driven, rights-based approach may be less effective than more “instrumental arguments of operational effectiveness.”
Because equality is simply not perceived in many men’s minds as having anything to do with business results.
That is one of the key roles of leaders – to make the link explicit and credible.
Organisations whose balancing initiatives involve men are more than three times more effective than those focusing only on women.
But male managers take balance seriously only if their bosses do.
This simple truth of hierarchical human organisations is the core of any change.
It isn’t enough for the CEO to say gender balance is important once a year in a management conference.
Nor even to set draconian and highly publicised targets.
Until leaders are convinced that gender balance is a strategic lever for the organisation and become authentically and articulately convincing to their colleagues about why that is, balance remains a politically correct sideline.
Reframe: The CEO and their team consistently and convincingly drive gender balance as an essential lever to achieving strategic goals and boosting the bottom line.
- Make balance a management skill and measure it
The final step is to make balance personal, measurable and accountable.
The tipping point?
When managers know they will be recognised and rewarded for building balanced teams (and not if they don’t).
When every manager is evaluated on their ability to work with 100 per cent of the talent and connect effectively with 100 per cent of the potential customer base.
They’ll know when the topic shifts from “no women/men apply for this position/sector” or “no women/men use this service” to “how can we help this manager build balanced teams and customer bases?”.
How to prepare managers for balance?
You can approach this as an unconscious bias problem, as many do.
But this is unnecessarily negative and accusatory.
It alienates many of the men employers say they want to engage.
A more effective alternative is to normalise gender balance as a business skill, like many others.
Good managers need to become fluent in the other revolutions of our time: technology, sustainability or globalisation.
In this context, gender balancing becomes a management skill that needs building.
Rather than the unnecessarily fraught frame of bias, help build competencies to work effectively across genders.
Educate managers to become more gender aware.
There is an overwhelming mountain of research on gender that needs to be further integrated into management development and business school curriculums.
Business schools offer executive women’s programs rather than educating their male-dominated MBA classes on gender balance.
We need to move on from this insistent focus on empowering women by having them learn about gender differences in order to “build their confidence” or better fit into dominant norms.
Invite men into the conversation by educating everyone in gender differences.
Build awareness of the masculine defaults and data that often underlie corporate systems and models – in everything from marketing and product development to recruiting and research.
Reframe: Balanced teams and customer bases become the sign of a skilled modern manager.
Measure balance as a management competency.
Engaging men isn’t about getting women to become ever more congratulatory about men who “get it.”
Getting men to embrace balance requires leaders skilled at making the link between balance and business.
When they buy it, and are skilled at selling it, everyone gets on board.
* Avivah Wittenberg-Cox is CEO of 20-first, a leading gender consulting firm.
This article first appeared at hbr.org
