Well hello friends! This has been a bit of a crazy week with DEF 2019 coming up this weekend. Lots of thoughts to get together for the panel I’m sitting on which involves Diversity & Inclusion. I thought I would pull together some of the most interesting statistics I’ve found that relate to the backlash associated with the #metoo movement.
Now, just so that we are crystal clear. I have no issue with the #metoo movement. I support it. I think it brought a focus to the discrimination and abuse in the workplace problem in a way that makes it relevant for all of us. And at the time I was very much #HELLYES. Burn the men who have been so inappropriate. But we are now seeing a backlash that was certainly an unintended consequence of that movement, and things are not looking up.
In the current state, the great white male is still very representative of the position of power. In some ways the opportunities that women have are GIVEN to them by men in power. But, what happens when men become fearful of being accused of being inappropriate because so much attention is cast on that problem? Sadly, fewer opportunities. Fewer female leaders. Less equality, not more.
Harvard Business Review stated that one survey indicated that 65% of men say its now “less safe” to mentor or coach women. So, what to do? Now men are afraid to interact with us at work? Great….
Workplaces also reacted dismally to these types of statistics doing little to provide training to assuage these fears. Now we may be even worse off than when we started. I’m no feminist. But something has to change. Lets see if we can write a new script!