Why “Manels” (All-Male Panels) Suck & 14 Steps to Ending Them
Recently, a government agency here in Japan announced an event on the theme of community building, featuring a wide range of experts from different fields and disciplines. Notice anything…?
Yup. All the 25 experts announced were men.
After an uproar on Twitter, the Ministry announced just 3 days later that it would add more diverse speakers (the excuse was “we couldn’t find any women speakers”…).
Firstly — this story speaks to the power of collective action and holding power to account. I’m sure that the organisers were not consciously trying to alienate anyone, but people raised their voices, triggering an important discussion that led to some form of action by the organisers.
Secondly — on a more systemic level, it’s hard to believe that in 2022, “Manels” (All-Male Panels) are still a thing. It is definitely NOT just the story of one ministry in one country — this sort of thing is concerningly widespread across many countries, fields and sectors.
What is a Manel?
“Manel” is a term referring to an “All-Male Panel”, used to highlight the exclusion of women and other marginalized groups as subject-matter experts in events, conferences and other public gatherings.
According to a 2018 study by Bizzabo analysing some 60,000 event speakers across 23 countries, more than two-thirds (69%) of all speakers were male, while less than one-third (31%) were female.
This imbalance is accentuated in certain, traditionally male-dominated industries; for example, 79% of “internet-focused events” speakers and 80% of “IT services” speakers in the study were male.
While this shows a clear gender bias in public events, one important thing to note is that “manels” are NOT just about gender equity.
The prevalence of manels also highlights the need for more diversity across intersectionality — i.e. creating an environment in which people of diverse race, sexual orientations, class, physical ability, geography, language, etc. feel included and represented.
Why Manels Suck
There are many problems with manels and a lack of diversity in events and other public fora:
- Manels are not an accurate representation of our world. When only men — especially those with similar backgrounds — are repeatedly highlighted as leading experts, we send a strong implicit message that only certain types of people can be credible, successful experts.
- When only one group of people is repeatedly given the chance to contribute to public discourse, it alienates those who are different, excludes the opinions and viewpoints of many, and ultimately impacts the richness of the discussion. How can we have a meaningful conversation if only one group is doing the talking?
- Diverse representation provides visibility to relatable role models for traditionally underrepresented groups. Research shows that publicly visible role models can have a major impact on developing future talent and leaders across sectors.
- The lack of diversity on expert panels reflects how few women and underrepresented groups are in leadership positions in many fields. Addressing the imbalance in public settings is an important part of solving the wider problem.
These are just a few of the problems with manels. And thankfully, there’s a lot we can do to end them, whether we are event organisers, speakers or guests. But first — a confession.
My (Accidental) Manel Problem
I’m grateful to be invited to speak at events, panels and conferences, but am still shocked at how many of them are non-diverse in their speakers, attendees and organising teams — even those hosted by forward-thinking organisations that are doing important work around social and environmental impact.
Having caught wind of the Manel problem — and having perused the hilarious yet powerful “Congrats! You have an All-Male Panel” website — I made a promise to myself not to be part of the problem.
But to be completely open, I’ve failed several times. Because of a lack of due diligence and not thinking ahead, I’ve inadvertently ended up on manels in the past.
The turning point came a few years ago when I was scheduled to speak at an international conference organised by a major intergovernmental organisation. It was a busy period, so I showed up at the prep meeting thoroughly under-prepared and not at all au fait with what was going on.
Within a few minutes, I realised that all of the other eight speakers were men.
At the end of the meeting, I cleared my throat and uncomfortably raised my concerns about the lack of diversity — with all the speakers and organisers in attendance. After an awkward moment of umming and ahhing, that familiar excuse emerged: “we couldn’t find any women experts”.
My immediate thought was “well clearly you didn’t look too bloody hard because — just as one example — my co-founder is a woman…”.
I suggested my co-founder attend; she was thankfully available and stepped in as the only non-male speaker on the day and the event went ahead as if nothing had ever happened.
The most shocking part was that this event happened to be organised by the world’s leading institution in sustainable development (that claims to place gender equity at the core of its work)… So it struck me that if this could happen here, it could happen anywhere.
Later that year, I established a “NO MANEL POLICY” to prevent any similar misadventures and let my stance be known to other event organisers — because surely it’s time to make Manels a thing of the past?
How Can We End Manels?
While I’m by no stretch of the imagination an expert on the topic, here are a few things I think we can do to have better representation in events and other places of public discourse, split into action items for event organisers, event speakers/panellists, and event participants.
Event Organisers
- Make your No Manels Policy / Diversity Policy public. Post it on your website, have it as part of your speaker invitations, etc. Speakers, attendees, and sponsors will give you extra respect when they see this ;)
- Ensure diversity in your organising teams. This can improve the range of speakers, as well as introduce different discussion topics for the event and even provide a wider network to tap into.
- Pay all event speakers equitably, based on expertise.
- Avoid tokenism
(e.g. assigning the MC or moderator role to a woman while the rest of the panel are all men does not count). - Be accountable
(e.g. disclose statistics from events, set targets, integrate event representation into annual reporting) - Ask “what voices are we not hearing? What questions are we not asking ?” This can prevent overlooking important individuals and discussion themes that may be missing from a conversation.
Event Speakers & Panellists
7. Let your No Manels Policy / Diversity Policy be known! Include it in your communications with organisers, the organisation’s website, etc.
8. Ask organisers who the other speakers are in advance. Enquire about gender balance/intersectionality too.
9. Refuse to speak on Manels. And importantly, explain why.
10. Encourage diverse speakers from your organisations.
(e.g. if you‘re invited to speak, ask yourself: “am I the best speaker on this topic?” “Is there another who would get great exposure, while representing themselves, our organisation and the topic better?”).
11. Demand equal speaking fees for all speakers, based on expertise.
12. Propose diverse panellists to event organizers. If you sense that an event could be improved by having a broader range of people and viewpoints, suggest suitable candidates to organisers.
Event Participants
13. Make your opinion heard
(e.g. if you see something, say something! Provide constructive feedback via appropriate channels to event organisers).
14. Elevate the message through social media
(e.g. posting on social media and tagging event organisers with constructive feedback can be a powerful way to get a message across).
That’s it from me. A few thoughts from an accidental, former “maneller”. Hopefully — one conversation, one email, one policy at a time — we can continue to reshape norms and expectations, and move towards a world without manels.
Thanks for reading! For more on topics related to social business and social innovation, see some of my other posts here:
