Turn up to any meeting on gender equality and the room will be full of women. Women talking to women about women.
When it comes to advancing women in the workplace, one of the biggest hurdles is men’s lack of interest. According to American sociologist, Prof Michael Kimmel, men can’t see what the issue is. They don’t see the advantages conferred by their Y chromosome.
“Privilege is invisible to those who have it.”
Kimmel, author and distinguished professor of sociology and gender studies at New York’s Stony Brook University, was in Sydney recently to talk about how to engage more men in the discussion around gender equality at work.
Privilege comes in a myriad of forms, including race, gender, wealth, physical fitness, safety, and educational attainment and indeed height. However, the people who have those things are usually unaware of their power and influence.
“I am the generic person. I am a middle class white man. I have no race, no class, no gender. I am universally generalisable,” says Kimmel.
While white, middle class men may be oblivious to their inherited advantages, those who differ from the norm are always being made aware of their difference, whether it is because of the street harassment endured by young women or the fact that people with foreign-sounding names have to lodge more than 60% more applications to get hired as their Anglo-Celtic rivals.
This obliviousness is often why men don’t turn up to workshops on gender equality and why there is such resistance to corrective mechanisms such as gender targets at work. Too many men still believe in the myth of the level playing field and that the word “gender” is another synonym for “women”.
A report by KPMG for the ASX corporate governance council released in May demonstrates how many employers are just paying lip service to diversity policies, by implementing them without targets for inclusion.
Kimmel, who has spent his career studying men and masculinity, says the absence of men in gender discussions is a problem.
“We cannot fully empower women and girls without engaging boys and men. We know this to be true. The question is then, how do we get men engaged in this conversation?”, asks Kimmel.
Make gender visible
Obliviousness to gender is the first obstacle to recruiting men to the cause of gender equality, he says. “We have to make men aware that gender is as important to us as it is to women.”
Men start comprehending the issues when they see women and girls that they love facing discrimination. When men become fathers of girls, they often become instant feminists, says Kimmel. And research suggests male CEOs with daughters run more socially responsible firms.
The second obstacle is men’s sense of entitlement, which leads to the resistance from those who believe handing over power means they lose, says Kimmel.
“Without confronting men’s sense of entitlement, we will never understand why so many men resist gender equality. [It is] because we grew up thinking this is a level playing field and any policy that tilts it a little bit, we think it is reverse discrimination against us.
“Let me be really clear. White men in Australia, North America and Europe are the beneficiaries of the single greatest affirmative action program in the history of the world. It is called the history of the world.”
Make the business case
Kimmel says men need to understand and believe the business case for gender equality: that companies that are more gender equal have a high rate of return on investment, higher profitability, lower labour costs, lower turnover, higher job satisfaction and lower levels of absenteeism.
“These are all easily calculable labour costs,” he says. “What we know is not only is gender equality right and fair and just, but we also know that it is smart. That it is good business.”
Men need to understand that gender equality does not mean they “get less of the pie”, but that the pie gets bigger. “It is not a zero sum game,” said Kimmel.
Make it personal
Men need convincing that gender equality is good for them on an individual level – and that can start with their home life.
Kimmel points to research that shows when men share housework and childcare, their children do better at school, they have higher rates of achievement, lower rates of absenteeism, are less likely to be diagnosed with ADHD and childhood depression, less likely to see therapists and to be put on medication.
At the same time, their wives are happier, healthier, less likely to go to a therapist or be put on prescription medication, less likely to be diagnosed with depression, more likely to go the gym and they report higher levels of marital satisfaction.
When they do their fair share at home, men themselves are also happier and healthier. “They smoke less, they drink less, they take recreational drugs less often, they are more likely to go to doctors for routine screenings, but they are less likely to go to the emergency room, go to a therapist, take medication.”
Focusing on the benefits of equality at home, says Kimmel, can be the start of changing attitudes to gender equality in the workplace, and everywhere else.