It's Up To Leadership To Reduce Masculine Anxiety And Reset Norms In The Workplace

While we can39t change what happens in small groups as leaders we can change the narrative of our norms Men should take advantage of their full paternity without fear of looking weak Men should feel compelled to share their failures unafraid of appearing vulnerable and proud of being resilient When leaders put down the script and share their true selves it trickles down and becomes an acceptable norm Most men we work with are wonderful respectful colleagues and partners It39s those few bad seeds struggling to hold on to some semblance of power who sow sexism If womenamp8212and other men refuse to tolerate their behavior and call them out for their actions their comments will fall on deaf earsTo put my own experiences aside I reached out to a subject matter expert for a more objective opinion on the findings Here39s what Jack Myers Media Ecologist founder of MediaVillage and bestselling author whose books include The Future of Men Masculinity in the TwentyFirst Century had to sayShelley Zalis Catalyst surveyed over 1000 men in the US and found that almost all of them94experience at least some degree of masculine anxiety at work Jack you39ve done so much research on this topic is this surprisingJack Myers When I did the original research for The Future of Men in 2016 the most fascinating statistic was that the percentage of men selfidentifying as feminists was declining for the first time ever It had reached a high point of 35 and had shown a couple years of decline I haven39t seen a recent data point If men feel they39re experiencing masculine anxiety at work and under attack I believe it39s a small minority who consider other men their attackersZalis Catalyst39s data shows that more than a quarter of men would likely do nothing if they heard a colleague make a sexist remark at work and that workplace culture plays a large role in this reluctance to speak up What can be done to lessen the impact of combative work culturesMyers This is an extraordinary stat Only 25 of men When I was doing my research the percentage I expected would have been more like 75 of men who would have done nothing and most of them would have participated I timed the average time it would take for the first sexist or misogynistic comment to be made when a small group of men gathered at an event out of earshot of women It was less than two minutesquotI started calling it out and saying I39d need to leave the conversation About one third would laugh one third would look at me warily and perhaps comprehend and adjust their behavior about one third would want to probe more into my pointquotZalis Jack this is exactly the type of leadership we need to amplifyamp8212calling it out and making it a norm to not engage in this type of talk to walk away and not give it fuelStudies show that men in the US experience immense pressure to present themselves as quotreal menquot who are tough aggressive sexually assertive and confident among other things They are also expected to avoid all that is considered feminine including displays of emotion other than anger Do you agree with this notion of quotreal menquotMyers I believe the drama in many men39s lives today is less about being a quotreal manquot than it is about adjusting to a world in which their privilege has been reversed At every turn the professional Caucasian maleamp8212and especially those in quotwhite collarquot aptly named professionsamp8212have lost or are rapidly losing privilege That is at the core of much of the backlash we39re experiencing primarily among white men to the rise of feminism multiculturalism and attacks on our institutionsZalis If change truly happens at home what can wives mothers sisters aunts do to help the young men in their lives look at masculinity through a different lensMyers Men who are open to adopting traditionally feminine characteristics are learning they have the best opportunities for success in relationships career family life The more important challenge for women is to confront those men who are doubling down on the quotreal manquot branding Asking for change will not succeed with these men Reeducation and societal rejection of this negative personae is essentialZalis Postpandemic what does the future of men holdMyers On the subject of masculinity and how it has changed during the pandemic I can focus only on the wave of violence of shootings of George Floyd white nationalism and the January 6th uprising Critical to the conversation today is how women of all colors religions and ethnic origins are going to unite as a singular voice and confront those in government who stand with inequalityquotIt39s also a problem when men are in a charged atmosphere in which every action past and present has the potential to cancel them Egregious past behavior should be outed and a penalty paid But where forgiveness is appropriate let39s give men a break and try to forgive and forgetquotZalis Thank you Jack that is a powerful statement We spend so much energy lambasting bad behavior let39s spend an equal if not greater amount of time calling out the men who are doing the right thing and personifying what equality looks like This is how we39ll reset the norms of workplace cultureJack39s 2016 TEDWomen talk can be viewed at wwwfutureofmencomThis article was originally published at ForbescomClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNetamp160

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It's Up To Leadership To Reduce Masculine Anxiety And Reset Norms In The Workplace

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Shelley Zalis

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It's Up To Leadership To Reduce Masculine Anxiety And Reset Norms In The Workplace

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