LeadershipHQ Magazine February 2015 1st Edition | Page 14

LET’S PERSONALISE IT.
I’ve brought my football. Want to join my
team?
Catalyst research shows that the more men
know about gender inequalities, the more
likely they are to lead efforts to close the
gender gap. And we need men to lead the
change effort alongside women. We have
men already in senior leadership positions
who wield influence. They are the people
who others will listen to and they are the
leaders that other men will follow.
But it’s not personal enough to talk about
the needs of only one team. What about
the other? What needs does the male
gender have when it comes to diversity?
The workplace is not like it was even ten
years ago. Just as an example, more and
more men are taking their turn as chief
caregiver at home and giving up their position in the workplace. They are entering
what has traditionally been the female
space and now they will be confronted
with their own brand of gender discrimination, particularly from the old guard of
traditional male leaders.
Well, Catalyst did say that the more men
know about gender inequalities, the more
they’ll try to do something about it, but
I doubt they were talking about living
through the experience. Yet this will work
to our advantage. It is becoming personal
for all of us.
FROM THE TOP AND THE BOTTOM.
How many footballs do we have?
We can talk all we like about statistics,
but gender diversity is a human issue,
not purely a matter of numbers. While
we have the support of Male Champions
of Change, changing the system from the
top down, perhaps we can recruit the men
who are experiencing the same kinds of
limitations that women are. Perhaps we
can drive change from the bottom up, too.
Gender diversity is an issue which affects
us all. If we can stop fighting over the football, perhaps we can join together and
field a team – a league – and start striving
for change as a united front.
13 | © LeadershipHQ 2015