Sally Patten* says a new survey reveals men are failing to take real action in the workplace to boost gender equality.
Photo: stevanovicigor
Less than one in five men take an active role in promoting gender balance in the workplace, even though three quarters of male employees pay lip service to supporting gender equality.
Just 17 per cent of men undertake initiatives such as sharing household responsibilities, mentoring a female colleague or friend, removing biases from hiring processes or calling out instances of gender discrimination, a survey by management consulting firm Bain & Company and Chief Executive Women (CEW) found.
But even the men who were highly engaged in promoting gender diversity were not participating in the initiatives women believed were most likely to have an impact.
To accelerate progress towards gender balance, it is vital that men at all levels are on board, says CEW President, Sue Morphet (pictured).
Women believed that calling out instances of discrimination and removing bias from the hiring process were two of the three most important steps men could take to improve gender balance.
But the two of the most widely pursued initiatives undertaken by men were mentoring a female colleague and having conversations about gender equality with other men.
Both sexes recognised the need for a greater sharing of household chores.
“Organisations with strong leadership commitment, clear strategies and gender equality programs are addressing some of the structural barriers for women in the workforce, yet progress towards gender equality in leadership ranks remains slow,” said Morphet, noting that over the past year the proportion of female chief executives in the ASX200 had risen 2 percentage points to 14.
“To accelerate this progress it is vital that men at all levels are on board,” she also said.
The survey found that senior male executives were nearly two and a half times more likely to actively promote gender balance than the workforce as a whole, while men between the ages of 18 and 34 were more likely to be engaged than men over the age of 34.
Among the men who did little more than pay lip service to supporting gender diversity, the most common excuses were having other priorities, a lack of time and lack of understanding about what steps they could take.
“The survey highlighted the fundamental disconnect between how men and women view male engagement which puts further progress at risk,” said Bain partner Chio Verastegui.
“Without a shared view of what is required a dangerous cycle could ensue, in which women demand more participation, causing men to disengage or retract their support,” he also said.
Only 4 per cent of all male respondents thought they would be disadvantaged by gender equality initiatives.
* Sally Patten writes on personal finance for The Australian Financial Review. She tweets at @sallympatten.
This article first appeared at www.afr.com.
