“We, men, sometimes don’t understand something because we don’t live it”

~ Jorge Rosillo, CEO and General Manager, Galapagos Ecological Airport as part of the UN Global Compact to Target Gender Equality in support of the #HeForShe movement.

 

Men, we need to try to understand – while appreciating that we will never completely understand. Nor can we assume that a bit of understanding gives us permission to stop listening.

But through our efforts to understand each other better, we will be kinder to each other.

Understanding someone never leads to hate or more hurtful behaviour towards that person.

Understanding almost always leads to treating that person with more respect, love, and kindness, and offering support.

More men need to engage in gender equality.

Engagement is not merely attending and clapping at a Women’s event.

Engagement is not deluding ourselves that we are blind to gender, and so treating everyone the same is equality.

Engagement is not merely liking a post on LinkedIn.

Engagement is not staying silent, being a passenger, and letting others do all of the work.

Engagement is not thinking that other men are the problem.

Engagement is:

✔️ actively listening to improve our understanding.

✔️ proactively discussing our cognitive struggles, our prejudices and our learnings, and what to do with this awareness.

✔️ consciously reviewing and revising processes, policies, behaviours and ‘norms’.

✔️ seeking feedback and advice about what we can do better in this area, and taking action.

✔️ leading and driving the progress, rather than waiting for the change to happen.

If more meant would just start doing what most women have been doing for decades to improve gender equality, then maybe – just maybe – together we may be able to fix it.

And wouldn’t that be incredible?

If your organisation wants to take some big steps to engage more men in your gender equality discussion, reach out to me to chat about whether Bloke Coaching may be a good fit.

Bloke Coaching is a program for male executives to understand male privilege, patriarchy, and prejudices and work proactively with the other genders to fix the systemic barriers that perpetuate gender inequality.