Not only should employers include men in diversity, equity and inclusion conversations for the sake of equity, but men explicitly want to be included, too. This is the crux of findings from Catalyst, a nonprofit that bills itself as an organization dedicated to “gender equity and workplace inclusion.”
Many feminists and now, DEI advocates, have sought parity for men and women. But some men have felt the gains made for women negate men’s value or infringe upon men’s personhood.
The resulting culture war, coupled with President Donald Trump’s DEI crackdown, has made retreat from such initiatives in corporate spaces commonplace.
Employers are being forced to rethink their approach to talent strategy and Jennifer McCollum, president and CEO of Catalyst, offers best practices for inclusion in her book “Men at Work: The Roadmap to Gender Partnership,” releasing next month, and in a conversation with HR Dive.
Editor’s note: This conversation was edited for clarity and length.
HR DIVE: You have called the finding that men want to be included in DEI conversations “surprising.” Why is that?
JENNIFER MCCOLLUM: Thirty years ago, Catalyst leaders were the first to start talking about the critical role that men play in accelerating that progress. We were the first to coin the term “sponsorship.” Later, about 15 years ago, we started talking about men as allies and advocates.
But throughout that time, it was really looking at men from the outside and asking them to help or support women.
There actually are two surprises: The first is that we have learned that men are equally committed to creating inclusive and equitable workplaces. Seventy-six percent of them, on the whole, are saying they want to close gender gaps at work.
That’s potentially a little bit surprising when you think about inclusion and men feeling left out — or sidelined or even blamed — for lack of inclusion or diversity.
Surprise No. 2: Men are struggling in the workplace, too. When we did the research, 82% of men said they feel this immense pressure to conform to what we call these rigid masculine stereotypes at work.
They also are feeling held back by gender norms and expectations, just like women have felt held back for many, many decades.
Was there any elaboration from men on the pressure to conform?
When we talk to men, they feel incredibly pressured to show up as stoic, competitive, always in control, and not able to really express the full set of traits, behaviors, emotions that we all have access to.
It doesn’t serve women when we’re expected to show up that way as a leader; it doesn’t serve men either.
We call it the “man box” — we didn’t coin that term — and we do not use the term “toxic masculinity,” because it implies that there’s something wrong with men themselves.
There’s nothing toxic about men. What is toxic are these outdated stereotypes that across gender we feel pressure to conform to.
Men are still far and away the majority of leaders at all levels in our organizations. When they bring those pressures into the workplace, it limits their ability to not only lead authentically, but also partner effectively.
We don’t want to call men in from the sidelines. We want this full spectrum of gender to believe that we can both contribute to and benefit from creating inclusive workplaces that work for everyone.
What does gender partnership look like in the workplace?
Partnership means men and women working together to create better workplaces for everyone. So what does that mean in practice? It’s redesigning structures that aren’t working for today’s workforce.
We use what we call the “5B framework.”
The first — and this is the hardest — is “begin with you.” This is about all of us looking inward and getting really honest. Our research showed that men are far more willing to engage in the actions of creating inclusive workplaces when they themselves have felt isolated, excluded or the “only,” or have been harassed.
The second B is “break down what’s not working.” This is identifying where your culture is falling short, and it might be at a personal leadership level. The big danger here is if organizations have ceased to collect their data, analyze or report on that data — even internally. That’s one of the reasons we’re starting to see the backslide: we’re not measuring as robustly as we were before. I’m not saying set specific goals that are against the executive orders, but track your data so you know what you can focus on.
The third B — and this isn’t discussed enough — is “build up what’s in it for men.” This gets back to why it's important to not only invite men in to contribute, but help them see “what’s in it for me?” We need to stop pretending that work-life integration is a women’s issue. It’s a human issue. And how many men want to leave the office in time to see their kid’s game, train for a marathon or care for an elder?
The fourth is what we call “bridge the gender gap.” Ask: How do we ensure we are closing those gaps, whether it’s pay gaps or opportunity gaps or representation gaps?
The fifth one is “bring humanity to work.” This is the idea that gender partners lead with empathy. They lead with their humanity. They bring it consciously into the workplace.
Because the truth is, we know so little about our colleagues across gender.
But when we lead with humanity — when we understand what your background, your experiences, your passion and your strengths are — then we can create better teams and better organizations.
