The men who really get the thing about gender at work - Women's Agenda

The men who really get the thing about gender at work

In the last few days I’ve had the pleasure of hearing from a number of men in senior leadership positions who’re just as passionate about creating gender diverse workplaces as some of our most vocal women on the issue.

These men don’t just get the business case for gender diversity at work — as many men in such positions do. They go out of their way to bring other male colleagues into the conversation and are genuinely committed to being a part of change.

The first male leader I heard from was Australian Konica Minolta managing director Dr David Cooke. As the first non-Japanese person appointed to such a role, Dr Cooke has a unique personal perspective on the issue of diversity.

He’s also a strong advocate for corporate social responsibility, having spent three years researching a PhD on the issue and believing it’s critical for a senior business leader to take an active interest in the area.

Dr Cooke set out from day one in his tenure in the role to create a more inclusive and diverse culture within the organisation, and the local branch of the company has seen some significant success as a result. Three of Dr Cooke’s six direct female reports are women. When asked how and why this is the case his response is simple: women are 50% of the population, why wouldn’t it be?

The other men I heard from were Maddocks partners Michael Winran and Patrick Ibbotson, at the Local Government Women’s Summit in Sydney.

Speaking on the topic of “engaging men who get it” they shared two very different perspectives of growing up around women in powerful positions and what they discovered upon entering the legal profession.

But they especially shared how Maddocks’ spent the last few years not only aiming to appoint more female partners, but also working to see more women appointed to senior leadership positions within the law firm.

Maddocks is now one of only three major law firms with a female CEO, Michelle Dixon. It’s also created an excellent pipeline of female leaders in the future, with half of its partnership under 45 now female.

Both Winram and Ibbotson offered ideas on how to further engage ‘men who get it’, conceding that a gender shift in the status quo can create a lot of fear amongst men, which needs to be countered.

They said it’s essential that we move beyond the information regarding gender at work — the clear stats about where we’re at, often presented as the ‘business case’ for gender equality — to seriously attempting to address cultural issues, and the barriers that prevent people from changing their behaviours. Those barriers include ignorance, inertia, fear and dissidence — all barriers that can be overcome once the extent of the problem is known (through data and information), and through story telling and positive policies established to promote change.

A big part of engaging ‘men who get it’ is to actively change perceptions regarding male and female responsibilities. Men need to have access to and the right to enjoy flexible arrangements as much as women. Men should be supported to take time off, to be an active parent and to pursue a life outside of work. Role modelling is essential. Employees need to see a range of gender neutral or even gender challenging behaviours displayed by those in leadership.

There are many, many benefits to gender diversity and equality at work. Any good leader would have seen the data and appreciate the genuine value of pay equity and policies that promote gender equality. The business case has well and truly been heard.

But as Ibbotson noted, believing that teaching the benefits of gender equality will be enough to change behaviours relies too much on assuming humans are rationale creatures. We’re not. We hold cultural biases and fears. We don’t simply arrive at the ‘right’ decision according to the information presented. Having worked in environmental law since the late 1980s, particularly in climate change, Ibbotson can relate to how certain truths will be rejected if the language used is personal, threatening or makes people feel like they’ve acted wrongly (consider the reaction the public had to former prime minister Kevin Rudd declaring climate change is the biggest ‘moral challenge’ of our time).

Yes there’s a great business case for diversity, and there are some excellent male leaders who are seriously committed to change. But we need more. We need to engage the hearts and minds of more men and women in this space, to demonstrate how everyone can personally benefit. We need to appeal to people as human beings, acknowledging their fears, concerns and insecurities. We need more men and women who ‘get it’. 

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