Four years ago we launched our first inclusion and diversity event with the specific goal of engaging men simply because we believe that gender equality in the workplace is only going to happen if we work together to deliver meaningful culture change.
The workplace has been created over the past millennia by men – and, let’s face it: white, cisgender, heteronormative men – so is ‘masculine’ by design.
Traditional and therefore stereotypical leadership traits like ambition, confidence and dominance are celebrated and rewarded. This leaves important emotional intelligence skills like listening, empathy and vulnerability by the sidelines, and it’s an environment that is exclusionary for anyone who doesn’t fit the masculine stereotype. Their abilities and skills are bumped down to second place, and the glass ceiling gets an extra coating of corrugated iron.
But it also damages men. We know that stress in the workplace is at an all time high for men and most fathers would love to have more time to spend with their children. And while our annual Masculinity in the Workplace event is designed to help men to recognise the damage that traditional masculine traits are doing to themselves, the workplace and everyone else, this year we wanted to go deeper and find out more about what they are thinking and to understand what changes need to be made to create more inclusive and diverse workplaces for everyone. So we commissioned an extensive piece of research to find out how people were feeling. This white paper pulls together that research, specifically in relation to masculinity and its impact on men.
Whilst everyone that was at MIW 2019 felt that change could happen, it was clear that this change needed to be led from the top. We ask, that if you enjoy this report, you give it to all your senior leaders to read.
We hope this report will help leaders to understand the need to change their work cultures and convince them of the benefit of a more inclusive, more vulnerable and more empathetic form of leadership. And if we inspire them to join us for Masculinity in the Workplace 2020 on 19th November, even better.