Why men resist gender equality at the workplace

Mercy Ngwebvu
PEOPLE often ask the question why men don’t support gender equality at the workplace. After all, if you look at it from an ethical standpoint, it is the right thing to do; it is fair, with all the talk going on about liberty and justice for all and all that.
Women progress more slowly up the corporate ladder than equally skilled men. How do we close workplace gender gaps, is what most of the men ask, when approached to comment about gender equality at the workplace.

That argument, what we might call the ethical imperative — supporting something because it’s right —doesn’t necessarily resonate with a large number of men.

That is not because men are bad, ignorant or anything of the kind. Partly, it is that those abstract principles feel very remote and distant, as if you could agree with it in the abstract and not really do anything about it.

Actually, most men are quietly – and without much ideological shift – accommodating themselves to greater gender equality in their homes and in their workplaces.

But there is need for people to go further than simple accommodation. We need to embrace gender equality because not only is it right, fair and just, but because it is in the best interests of everyone involved.

In order to do that though, there is a need to get underneath the ethical imperative, underneath the casual statement of general support for equality “as long as it doesn’t hurt me.”

We need to untangle that knot and face the fact that gender equality should not be a loss to anyone but a win-win situation for both men and women.

Many men see gender equality as a zero sum game: if women win, men lose. There are only so many positions at the top. So if women get half of them, then there are fewer of them for us. Affirmative action, diversity awareness, and gender equality projects are thus seen as actively discriminating against men.

Looked at another way, though, we’d have to admit that by excluding women, men would have insured that they stood a far better chance of getting those positions.

Equality can feel pretty unfair when you haven’t had to share any of your toys before.
But change we shall – and not just because it’s the right thing to do. It is also in our interests to embrace gender equality. The empirical evidence is clear: at the corporate level, those companies that embrace diversity and enable everyone to feel included and valued have lower rates of absenteeism and job turnover, and higher levels of job satisfaction and productivity.

And personally, the more equal our relationships, the happier and healthier everyone will be. Indeed, the very search for ‘‘equality’’ between men and women is fuelling a never-ending war between men and women.

Equality on the basis of gender is very possible and should also be promoted. It is no longer plausible to prevent the feminine gender from anything just because they are female.

Men and women have proven that they can compete for the same positions in the society irrespective of their gender. So, bias against women simply because they are perceived as the weaker sex should be totally rooted out of our society.

Women have proven time and again that they are equally capable of doing things and shouldering responsibilities just as men are.
Women today hold prestigious positions in the top management rungs of various corporate names. Several countries have women as the prime minister or president, something which shows that women can compete with men on an equal footing.

People should have equal rights and not be judged because of gender. Women and men are obviously different but they have important things in common like willingness to learn and being able to become whatever one wants to be.