Man Who Has It All on workplace discrimination, staying sexy, and maintaining a healthy marriage while being a dad

In the wake of #MeToo and ongoing sexual harassment allegations against men, one key group is being left out of the discussion: working dads. In today’s modern time, how do working dads cope with working dad guilt, nurture their wives, and speak up in the boardroom, all the while maintaining a youthful glow? Feminist Current’s Meghan Murphy speaks with The Man Who Has It All, author of a new book, The Man Who Has It All: A Patronizing Parody of Self-Help Books for Women, to learn more about empowered dads.

~~~

MEGHAN MURPHY: What kind of discrimination have you faced in the workforce on account of being a dad? Do you find your female co-workers take you less seriously as a result? Do you ever get the sense you are left out of or excluded from key lunch meetings or weekend golf trips on account of being a man? What do you do to deal with this?

MAN WHO HAS IT ALL: I’m treated very differently at work now that I’m a father. My colleagues resent it when I leave early to collect my sick child and my boss stopped giving me interesting projects to do. But I think my own perception of myself is to blame. I see myself as somebody’s dad now, rather than a person in my own right.

I feel excluded from dinners with the Chippendales, roller derby team-building sessions, and charity auctions (they auction penis-enhancers for “the husband”). My wife occasionally babysits for me so I can go, but to be honest, I don’t enjoy it.

That said, having a child need not be the end of a man’s career. Forward-thinking companies are beginning to see the value in hiring men who have children.

MM: Men have a reputation of being oversensitive, and sometimes working in female-dominated workplaces can be tough — female humour, sports talk, objectifying comments about penises can make men feel uncomfortable, and the way women communicate can often be straightforward in a way that sounds harsh to male ears. How do you keep your emotions in check in the boardroom?

Visit Feminist Current to continue reading.

Tags: books, fatherhood, interviews, Man Who Has It All, satire, workplace discrimination

Originally published at www.feministcurrent.com on February 20, 2018.