On one side of town, we’ve got a former company chair declaring the system’s trying to “crush gender equality into the space of a few years” and that it’s the “wrong time to be a 60-year-old professional” male.
On the other side of town, we’ve got a bunch of CEOs (mostly male) declaring men need to get with the program on gender diversity, and that complaining about a lack of opportunities for men should really not be a “top ten concern”.
The chairman concerned about gender equality happening too quickly is Simon McKeon, quoted in The Australian today after comments he made at an Australian Centre for Financial Studies lunch in Melbourne. He said that life’s tough for businessmen in their fifties and sixties, who now have the choice of the golf club, the beach, or an aged care facility. He said his male friends are experiencing professional rejection for the first time after having the “red carpet” rolled out for them for so long.
McKeon is a former Australian of the Year, he resigned from his role as Chair of AMP earlier this year and was replaced by a woman, Catherine Brenner.
So it’s the wrong time to be a 60-year-old man in business, or perhaps just not AS good a time as it once was. But McKeon might now think it was the wrong time to make such comments.
Today, the Male Champions of Change along with Chief Executive Women have released a report on ‘merit’, detailing how subjective merit actually is.
In line with the report the AFR last week hosted a lunch with some of the ‘champions’ who shared their views, particularly their thoughts on the men who push back saying, ‘it’s just not fair’.
CBA’s Ian Narev had this to say:
“If you’re a senior male and you genuinely believe that an appointment’s been made other than on merit, and you genuinely believe you won’t get a chance because you’re a male, you’re probably not a good Fit any more. If people are starting to whinge about ‘it’s getting tough in her’, then boy, that’s not the top 10 list of tough things going on.”
These CEOs didn’t appear to talk about a backlash from men in their sixties who can’t get board positions, but rather men in middle management who feel overlooked due to more women coming up the ranks.
As ANZ Chief Shayne Elliott told the AFR Roundtable:
“There is an absolute backlash of middle management males who, (in engagement surveys) write all the comments, who resent the fact that in their mind that we are choosing diversity candidates over merit. Now they may not use that word ‘merit’ but it is absolutely apparent. And it’s quite a strongly held view.” ANZ is aiming to have 43.4% of jobs held by women by December 2018 and is on track to do so, currently at 41%.
As more of Australia’s largest employers start to push and promote their gender targets, and more men potentially end up festering ideas that women are taking all the jobs, the CEW-led discussion on merit is timely. The report In the Eye of the Beholder: Avoiding the Merit Trap, argues that merit is all about performance and potential, but how it’s assessed is highly subjective, with too many people defining ‘merit’ as people who look like us.
Last week Elizabeth Broderick told a women in sport lunch that “merit is the status quo reinforcing the status quo”. On the upcoming release of the report she said, “We’ve decided to reclaim and redefine what merit is. Merit is not about how the incumbents did it, or about looking at the past. Merit is about looking at the future.”
As for McKeon, I’m not yet convinced that it’s the men in their fifties and sixties who are coming up against closed doors. There are 40 boards on the ASX that still do not have a single woman, and female directors continue to make up less than one quarter of ASX 200 boards.
