Roman Ruzbacky* says the failure to achieve workplace gender equality is a passive form of ‘male backlash’.
Photo: Nick Fewings
The concept of male backlash is not new.
There has always been some form of resistance to diversity, inclusion and equity work.
The overt form of resistance includes things such as hostile commentary on social media.
Passive forms of backlash, on the other hand, often show up in anonymous culture surveys, for example when people express feelings of being alienated from their organisation’s gender equality programs.
Passive resistance can also be institutionalised, such as the lack of effort by organisations to fast-track gender equity initiatives.
However, something has changed over the last few years.
When the conversation shifted from “fixing” women to “enabling” women, when many women found their voice in the #MeToo campaign, and when representative targets started to make it into gender equity action plans and organisations became more vocal about their support for gender equality, the resistance ranged from passive to outright anger.
We need to understand these new narratives if we are to accelerate gender equality in the workplace.
Reasons for resistance
Many fail to properly comprehend the evidence and therefore remain dismissive of gender equity initiatives.
Evidence from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) Census reports still shows under-representation, underutilisation and discrimination (or a softer term, unconscious bias), including sexual harassment of women in workplaces persists.
The “Stupid Curve”, coined by former US Deloitte boss Mike Cook, demonstrates that Australian employers are still wasting a significant amount of internal talent.
Whilst the percentage of women graduating from universities has been over 55 per cent for the past 15 years, organisations still select nearly 70 per cent of their leaders (90 per cent in 2008) from only 50 per cent of the workforce (the male half).
As a result, the other 50 per cent (the female half) of the workforce is overlooked and underutilised.
Our social conditioning (including the influence of social media) may contribute to how we perceive women in leadership, culture, power or authority, in an Australian context.
The lack of diversity in politics, mainstream media, TV shows and commercials helps to normalise stereotypes.
And when women try to break through those stereotypes, they experience resistance.
We have recently seen the emergence of powerful men advocating for gender equality.
However, when establishing a stake in the game, their narrative around why they are invested in gender equity — beyond personal gain — needs to be clear.
It has been suggested that organisational gender scholarship by male and female executives is critical to understanding the gendered nature of championing.
This knowledge can also impact the prioritising of gender equity in organisations.
For example, strategies that look at adopting gender-neutral language and tackling sexism are important, but these need to be coupled with deeper structural and systemic issues, so that men don’t cherry-pick issues in isolation to either campaign for or protest against.
The other reason is that the conversation around targets and quotas, and positions designed for women only, is perceived by some as too interventionist and a type of reverse discrimination.
What the opponents fail to understand is that targets and quotas are usually a last resort and introduced after years of gently nudging people towards equality outcomes.
Moving men into feminised industries
Demographer Bernard Salt analysed the top 100 jobs performed by men and women, as recorded in the Australian Censuses of 2011 and 2016.
Not much had changed.
The greatest positive shift was the increase in female train drivers.
The top male professions for both the 2011 and 2015 Census were: carpenters, plumbers, electricians, builders.
For women, it was teachers, childcare, health and aged care.
Another reason is that men in the middle of the organisation are being left out of the gender equity conversation.
With the emergence of men at the top of organisations now championing gender equity initiatives, there has been an absence of men in the middle of the organisation doing the same.
Research from the 50/50 by 2030 Foundation shows 46 per cent of men in Australia believe that gender equality strategies do not take men into account: in addition, 42 per cent of men and boys feel increasingly excluded from measures to improve gender equality.
Where are the men driving D&I?
Another reason for male backlash is the lack of men engaged in developing and driving diversity and inclusion (D&I) efforts and policies.
An increase in male employees deployed to D&I teams may help ensure men are better engaged, for example, in strategies around parental leave provisions and encouraging men to work in traditionally feminised industries.
Whilst there has been an apparent rise in women advocating for men, especially when it comes to new fathers, there are nevertheless questions around the stereotypical images used to showcase fathers as parents.
Perhaps such images fail to fully explore the complexities of fatherhood?
Men come in all shapes and sizes.
Single fathers, stepfathers, foster fathers, fathers in a same-sex relationship, etc.
Men who do not see themselves accurately represented in these situations may feel excluded or misrepresented.
Approaching D&I differently to ensure buy-in
Organisations need to see D&I proficiency and practice as a key management attribute.
Current gender equity data highlights the under-representation and underutilisation of women in Australian workplaces.
The WGEA’s August 2018 Gender Workplace Statistics at a Glance report showed:
- Women hold 13.7 per cent of chair positions and 24.9 per cent of directorships and represent 16.5 per cent of CEOs and 29.7 per cent of key management personnel.
- Nearly three-quarters (71 per cent) of reporting organisations have a male-only team of key management personnel.
- 28.2 per cent of directors in the ASX 200 are women.
Having transparent organisational gender equity data helps fast track the conversation in gender equity, giving a clear narrative and rationale for doing the work.
Looking through your organisation’s cultural survey responses to see if gender is even mentioned, or whether issues around backlash exist, is also helpful.
* Roman Ruzbacky is a diversity, inclusion and equity practitioner and President of the Equal Employment Opportunity Network. He tweets at @RomanRuzbacky.
This article first appeared at www.broadagenda.com.au.
