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We’re Losing Them
Progress isn’t linear and we can’t leave men behind
A few years ago I really felt we had taken a turn for the better. Men were finally “getting it”. Or at least the men in my circles. They were talking the talk and walking the walk of diversity and inclusion. Aware of their own privilege and spotting bias out in the wild. Capable of being challenged directly.
The problem wasn’t fixed but there was a real push of allyship that made me optimistic. We had moved from talking about sexism to getting into the nitty gritty of intersectionality because it truly felt like there was an acceptance of gender disparity.
But I’ve learned that sometimes progress, if too visible, can hinder itself.
As we have “moved forward” and felt that the moral high ground was obvious we have risked arrogance of our perspective and blindness to those that are changing their minds.
In the last 12 months, cracks are showing and they are growing. And my heart breaks as I see previous allies bitter or quieten in their resolve.
We need to keep talking to the men that we think support us. We need to keep an eye on those that feel marginalised by progress. Because our progress is fragile.
Today’s divide
In March of this year, the Financial Times released an op-ed titled “Has the push for female equality gone too far?” An uncomfortable headline that brought the worry of more people than we would like to believe to the fore. The trigger for this article being a failed Irish referendum on the role of women in the home I felt was distracting. It ignored all the various reasons that referendum didn’t succeed from complex messaging to an unpopular government. Yes there were people that voted “No” because of their beliefs about women but that was not the full story.
If this was the only takeaway from this article then people are missing a deeper and more concerning trend. Many Generation Z men believe we have done too much to promote Women’s equality. The general belief that younger people are less “conservative” is not the trend we are seeing anymore. This trend is backed up by an earlier Financial Times release that states “A new global gender divide is emerging” — the generational…
