Some women cringe when they hear it, because they’ve heard it so many times before: Another influential man – a CEO, an MP, a Finance Minister – declaring they’re the father of girls, and want those girls to have the same opportunities as boys.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann told Leigh Sales as much during an interview on 7:30 last week. Asked if he was a feminist, he opted to name his other credentials – his daughters – as proof he cares about gender equality. Meanwhile, numerous male leaders have stood up to declare how the switch turned on regarding equal opportunity at work when they became the father of girls.
Well, it seems new research now backs what we may have already guessed anecdotally – that having a couple of girls really does significantly enhance how CEOs feel about gender equality.
Melbourne Business School Researcher Professor Isabel Metz wanted to find out why male CEOs join advocacy groups promoting gender equity change, and so conducted 40 confidential interviews to find out a little more about their motivations.
What she found was that the men were more likely to champion workplace gender diversity and work with advocacy groups if they had a daughter, or first-hand experience with discrimination or exclusion (such as through a female partner).
As she outlined on the findings:
“Exclusion or discrimination experienced firsthand or vicariously through their partners and having female offspring were the biggest motivators for CEOs to join advocacy groups for gender equity and be true champions of change publicly and inside their organisations.”
Mertz released quotes from some of the male CEOs interviewed, showing how their perspectives can change:
“I have a wife and daughter, and I could see the struggle that my wife had gone through, and I could see the struggle that my daughter was going through, and so there was an emotional resonance.” CEO #10.
“I come from a background that had the gender discrimination high on the list … I grew up in all those sexist, racist, sectarian, homophobia, all that stuff, during my childhood.” CEO #19
Mertz found more than 40% of the CEOs surveyed said they were driven by moral values such as fairness to drive gender equity change.
Still, she also found a large number of those interviewed were ‘bystanders’ on gender equity, neither actively supporting nor resisting change. “They’re sitting on the fence on the issue for many reasons, such as gender fatigue, lack of understanding on the business case for gender diversity, the belief that gender inequities are a ‘thing of the past’ or the fear of disapproval from male peers if they decides to shift the status quo and make a case for change.”
Thankfully, Mertz found all CEOs agreed that more needs to be done in order to progress workplace gender equality, not only in organisations, but also at a broader level through collaborations with schools, government and institutions.
“People who come into our organisations come from society,” Mertz said. “So we need to start talking to boys and girls at an early age about how the opportunities are there for everybody and not pigeon hole our children through unconscious biases that have an impact in the workplace.”
That means, as Mertz explained, that male ‘change champions’ are just one part of the puzzle.
We can’t be relying on men to have daughters in order to initiate the change that’s needed. We need broad and sustained cultural change.
“It takes one passionate leader, followed by another, that persistently has the issue in the spotlight, and it will have snowball effect,” Mertz said.