I am a mid-aged caucasian man, I believe in gender equality, and fight for it.
I do so, because it is only fair, and good for our society and business.
You may have seen my previous articles, research and work to help creating a true gender balance. So today, I would like to share my personal story and views with you. I hope that this can help to motivate you to step up and become an activist for equality, diversity and inclusion too.
My story: from ignorance to being affected.
As a child of the 70s, my parents both worked full-time. When they came home from work, it was my mom who took care of the household, cooked and made sure that us kids were ok. My dad 'recharged”.
As a kid, I couldn’t see that it was unfair. It was normal.
When I started working in 1989, there was about 30% women on my entry level. But it soon thinned out, because many female colleagues got married and started to raise their children. Sometimes they came back to jobs that were at a lower level, sometimes they didn’t come back at all.
I didn’t think much about it back then. It was normal.
When I grew into leadership roles later in the 90s, I somehow ended up building a team with 70% women. There was no strategy behind it, I just wanted to have the best person for the job and the responsibility. I remember many discussions with my boss and HR about salaries, and that I was getting myself into trouble. Because II hired women and gave them a high salary increase, in order to take them to the same level as the men in my organization.
Now I started to think about inequality, and go against it.
When my son was born, I asked if I could take paternity leave. It was turned down with a laugh by my American boss, and I was asked if I don’t have a wife. I accepted it, which I sincerely regret.
For the first time, I was negatively affected by rigid gender roles.
Fast forward to today.
I am married to a hard-working, empathic and successful woman. We are equal partners, and play different roles in our family. We learn a lot from each other, and enable each other to be at our best. We share the work and decisions. This is our normal, like it is for many other couples we know.
Our 12 years old daughter is bright and curious. She understands so much so quickly, and she seems to be a bottom-less reservoir of curiosity. But I simply cannot explain to her, why women should be paid less than men, and why there are so few female leaders. She is shocked whenever she faces inequality and says “It doesn’t make sense”.
There is not one specific reason or experience that miraculously turned me into a fighter for gender equality. Rather, it is the sum of how I have lived my life, how I view myself and the values I hold. My story is probably similar to many other men’s.
As a result, I believe that Inequality and exclusion is unfair and never make any sense. Inequality of any kind takes away possibilities from people, and it limits how people can live their lives.
A gender balance is also about good business.
The research is clear: Gender equality makes organizations and businesses better: Cultures become more open, creativity flourishes, collaboration is better and ultimately, it improves performance. But most organizations still struggle with absurdly imbalanced workforces.
Thinking back to the many people I have worked with, most of the ones who really stood out were women. These women’s empathy is definitely something that make them extraordinary, but their success comes from many other competencies too. Therefore, I go against labelling female leadership as “soft” and empathic only.
At novosensus, we have measured that female leaders are rated higher by the employees on 6 out of 7 competencies. Beyond Empathy, these women also give clearer direction, more constructive feedback, are more trustworthy and as a result, their teams collaborate better.
Therefore, gender equality is a strategic business issue, and organizations have to stop seeing it as a nice-to-have CSR project. We need to be much more concrete in how we accelerate female talents into leadership positions. Not with quotas, but rather by realizing the business opportunities in equality, diversity of thoughts and inclusive behaviours.
A gender balance is fair, and it makes business better too.
So, if you are also a mid-aged white man, please step up and do something about it. Become an ally and enabler for the women in your community and organization.
Yours,
Henrik