If you thought we’d long stamped out the archaic belief that a ‘woman’s place is in the home’, you thought wrong.
And if you thought such attitudes were at least disappearing, if not well on their way out altogether, you’d be wrong again. Nor are such attitudes merely held by older men who started their working lives in a workforce much different to what we see today (the ‘dinosaurs’ as they’re often referred to).
According Roy Morgan Research, the proportion of young men who believe a woman’s place is in the home is on the increase, up to 11.6% in 2013 from 6.5% in 2008. It’s a 40% increase in one decade.
It’s a disturbing trend that reflects a mindset that will always get in the way of gender equity at work, no matter what structures and practices are put in place to help.
The positive result from the Roy Morgan research is that the proportion of men over the age of 65 who believe that women belong in the home has decreased over the last decade, from 21% to 13%.
However, many of these men are now leaving, or have already left, the workforce. It’s the young men – those in their twenties and early thirties – who will soon be stepping up to take leadership positions at our major employers. If more than one in ten of those in the leadership pipeline do not believe women should be in the workforce at all, let alone have access to the same opportunities as they do, then we have a serious problem.
These men will become employers and colleagues of women. They are already, and will become, the boyfriends, partners and husbands of women.
This Roy Morgan research forms just part of a number of alarming statistics being presented at the Gender Economics Global Conference today at the University of NSW, by Ross Honeywill, director of the Centre for Gender Equity.
We’ve published Honeywill’s paper, Australia is Remasculinising, on Women’s Agenda today. It’s a long read – and one that some women may find depressing – but certainly a worthwhile read with a suggestion on what really needs to change in order to eliminate gender inequity at work.
When I attend seminars and conferences regarding how to fix the still to low number of women in leadership positions, a number of solutions come up over and over again – everything from quotas, to targets, sponsorship programs and behavioural training. Then there are the strategies women can deploy themselves – such as getting a mentor and career planning.
But what good are quotas, mentors, sponsors and other measures if we’re still dealing with a mindset we thought disappeared decades ago? What good are the best career plans if you’re up against people who don’t believe you should be making such plans in the first place?