In Defence of Men.

The Equality, Diversity & Inclusion paradigm

We will not solve the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion paradigm by constantly attacking, marginalising  and ignoring men and mens issues.

The Men blaming, men hating has to stop!

Yes they may proportionately have more responsibility for discrimination and sexual harassment, but they too can be subject to the same from women and men.  The narratives coming out in recent months are going beyond highlighting this to putting the entire blame on men alone.  This isn’t just wrong, it’s dangerous, not just for business, but society as a whole and very few are picking up on it.

The #MeToo movement completely ignores the young men & boys who were also sexually abused by same said group of Film, TV & Music people, but we see little or no notice of this in the press or by the group itself.  Before the #MeToo and other feminist groups start, take a moment to read Just a bit of banter, a flawed report and by that I mean read it all, not just the first few lines or paragraphs and then tell me that I have no right to talk or write about this subject.

I realise that according to some I would be at the bottom of the pile in terms of intersectional victimhood, in that I am a member of the group who are characterised as the great oppressors, discriminators, sexual harassers etc simply because I am a straight, white male over the age of 50.

“I for one, am none of those things!”

This is identity politics and group identity assumptions at their very worst.  The vast majority of men in general and those at work aren’t responsible for discrimination or sexual harassment.  Just because the management levels of organisations are heavily dominated by men it does not make all of those men discriminatory or sexual harassers.  In fact most sexual harassment is committed by colleagues at the same level.  Most men like every other worker be they management or not want to come to work, do their work and go home at the end of the day to spend time with their families, but you wouldn’t think so based on the media output being generated.

A recent article by Miriam Kenner Government urged to change law on sexual harassment to protect workers highlights that they are not talking about changing the law on sexual harassment to protect all workers, but just female workers.  The second line of the article quotes “The current law on sexual harassment must be bolstered to better protect women in the workplace, experts have urged the government.”

For me this is the wrong starting point.  It suggests that men and boys in employment aren’t also subject to sexual harassment at work which is far from the case.  34% of people subject to sexual harassment at work are men.

“The aim of any such law should be to reduce to zero sexual harassment at work.”

The starting point should be that the law on sexual harassment must be bolstered to protect all workers.  If there needs to be additional provisions to enhance the protection to women then by all means do so, but it has to be within that legislation and not the focus of it.  That said, a well drafted and enforced law will in effect achieve that aim without any specific provisions for one sex or the other.  For me it is at enforcement that the law falls down.  It is for the individual who has been subject to the behaviour to prosecute the case.  How many of those who are subject to this behaviour are actually in a position to do so?  Sexual Harassment is a criminal offence outside the work place, a complaint is made, the police investigate and the Crown Prosecution Service takes it to court.  In the workplace however that isn’t the case.  Those subjected to this behaviour are forced to go through a lengthy process to receive justice, that’s if they actually receive it, at a significant cost to themselves and I am not just talking about monetary costs.

In the article “Women ‘impacted more than men by age discrimination’ in the workplace” again the subject is about discrimination, this time age discrimination, but only from the view point of women.  Are older men not really impacted by age discrimination?  Of course they are, but for this article that was by the by.  The only thing that was important is that women are more disadvantaged. This is because 0.4% more women were disadvantaged.  Age discrimination against men or the impact on them isn’t mentioned, it doesn’t fit the narrative. ¹

These are just two articles, there are many more out there and many more to come which put all men in the dock.  Are we at a point where we are saying?

“Most sexual harassers at work are men, therefore all men at work are sexual harassers.”

Or that.

“Most sexual discrimination is carried out by men, therefore all men are sexual discriminators.”

Neither description is true but you wouldn’t think so from the coverage of these issues.

There is now anecdotal evidence that male managers and leaders will not take women under their wing to coach and mentor them which is going to be needed if they are to attain their 50% target of managers and board members.  Why? Simply put, they consider it too much of a risk.  A lot of this work requires one to one working and men are less and less willing to do that. I have heard unsubstantiated reports that they wont even travel alone for business with a female, especially if that includes an overnight stay.

Yet another recent article “One in seven bosses wouldn’t hire a woman who might have kids”  said that 18% of male managers would not hire a woman in her 20s or 30s because they would likely go off on maternity at some point.  I will be honest I thought the figure would be higher.  But what really shocked me in the article was that 10% of female mangers would do the same, women discriminating against women!  Why is this the case?  Shouldn’t women managers be doing all they can to stop discrimination against other women in the work place or which prevents women actually getting a job because of their gender?

I remember introducing flexible working at one company, the male managers accepted it, didn’t object in any way what so ever, they even went as far as looking how their departments worked so it was possible for their female staff to take advantage of flexible working.  The female managers not only objected to the policy being put in place but did everything in their power to obstruct women in their teams from asking for flexible working in the first place as well as refusing to grant flexible working requests.  It was only pressure placed on them by me, that any request was granted.  Their reasoning. “I didn’t have that available to me so why should they have it.”

“I brought up two children without getting flexible working.”

I just couldn’t understand the rational, I still can’t and never will.

For over a decade now the education of boys and white boys in particular has been put to the back burner while millions have been spent on the education of girls and minorities especially in STEM. White boys from working class backgrounds have gone backwards in attainment. They are now less likely to go to university and young white men are going to find it extremely difficult to move into management positions while companys do what’s being asked of them to ensure that women in particular and other minorities take their percentage shares in those positions.   This may take a decade or more to happen and in that time young white men will be required to sit back and take it.

You can’t put 48% +  of the populations down like that without a backlash, and it won’t be pretty not for our oganisations, or for society in general.  This is nothing more than reverse race and sexism and has nothing to do with equality and everything to do with retaliation and retribution unfortunately it is being aimed at and will do damage to, what I and others believe to be the least sexist, least racist generation we have ever had.  The repercussions of this are most like to be not a reduction in sexism and racism, but an increase and that spells danger for everyone.

I am not saying that there aren’t problems, there undoubtably are and they need to be eliminated.  However the amount of bias in the reporting of issues around gender isn’t helping.  I would go so far to say that it is creating more harm than good.  That it has the possibility of turning a progressive drive to eliminate all forms of discrimination and harassment, not only from our work places but from society on it’s head.  If we don’t acknowledge the effects of bad behaviour on ALL our people, then we are in danger of creating a situation that will be just as bad, if not worse than what we already have.  If we don’t also acknowledge that men too can be detrimentally effected by this behaviour the battle will continue.  Men will increasingly disengage from these sorts of issues if the only thing they hear is that it is all mens fault, which of course is the current narrative.

If we want to work towards a more equal workplace and society the blaming of todays men for historical actions has to stop.

Some Interesting Statistics

4 in 5 suicides are men – 84 men die each week. – The Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM)

Work Place Deaths 97% Men – HSE Statistics

Prostate Cancer has now taken over Breast Cancer in terms of diagnosis & deaths. – Nursing Times

Domestic Violence 1.2 million women 760,000 male victims 39% of domestic violence victims are male. – Office for National Statistics

Sexual Harassment at work 66% women 34% men.

¹ Women ‘impacted more than men by age discrimination’ in the workplace