Steve Price: Most men do the right thing, those who don’t should be outed
South Australian MP Nicole Flint calling out Labor’s hypocrisy and autumn weather get Pricey’s tick of approval, but 3AW’s Neil Mitchell doesn’t. Here’s why.
Opinion
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In Canberra this week as several thousand protesters gathered on the lawn outside Parliament House, an organiser of the protest filled some time while waiting for an invited speaker to appear.
She whipped the crowd into a noisy frenzy suggesting her fellow protesters were “up against a Government that doesn’t care about its people”.
This ridiculous claim was shouted into a microphone after the same organiser claimed one in five women in Australia have experienced sexual violence.
The word violence stood out to me in that sentence, not sexual harassment but sexual violence. I have no idea where that claim comes from and if it’s based on any actual figures.
It led me this week to talk to as many women friends as I could — on the basis of confidentiality — about their experiences at work and socially.
As an older male I am on a hiding to nothing engaging in this debate but after spending several weeks sitting nervously on the sidelines I think it’s time for some sort of balance.
A word out of place on this issue will inevitably lead to an aggressive pile on, as men my age and from my generation, it seems, are not supposed to have a view on the current debate surrounding the treatment of women.
Why?
As a father of two daughters in their 20s, a son to a mother in her 80s, ex-husband to some wonderful women, a brother to a sister and uncle to five female nieces I reckon I know a little bit about women. My life has been surrounded by females and I have as many female as male friends.
How come, then, do I feel that to even broach this subject means I am going to be slammed by the aggressive collective that appear determined to hijack this very important debate and turn it into a political point scoring exercise against Scott Morrison in particular, and men in general?
In these pages, weeks ago, I argued that the PM had a tin ear on many issues, and he does, but to suggest, as has happened this week, that he doesn’t care about the workplace safety of women is just silly — an insult even.
It feels as a male that ALL men are being grouped by some as predators, and domineering bosses, who turn their backs on workplace incidents that should be reported.
To listen to the speeches, men we are told, get some sort of perverse pleasure out of paying women less and turning a blind eye to sexual harassment.
Sure, that happens but equally men get a raw deal at work and believe it or not men can be harassed as well.
To try and get a better perspective on all this I asked six women aged from their early 20s to late 40s a series of questions about their experiences at work and out socially.
I must say I was shocked and understand a little better now just how small things I take for granted are a challenge for some of my female friends.
Take the simple pleasure of an early morning walk or in this case her early morning jog. My friend tells me she sits looking out the window waiting for the sun to come up too scared to exercise in the dark.
How bad is that.
Another tells of a terrifying workplace incident where she was followed at a work function into the female toilets by not one, but two men, who asked her to remove her top.
She refused and managed to escape but didn’t report the pair to management, fearful that her role, rarely filled by females, would disappear.
Instead, she told a workmate of one of the men and they dealt with it internally.
The same friend in the 1990s worked in the macho world of finance, a lone woman on a floor filled with as many as 500 men. She was regularly asked if she had sex at the weekend and if she was wearing underwear.
Intimidating, crude and disgraceful.
Perhaps the most disturbing reflections came from one of my younger female friends and this is, I think, where this debate needs to focus.
She tells me that even if she was sexually assaulted in the workplace, she would be reluctant to report it because of the effect it may have on her career prospects.
How sad is that.
My friend makes the excellent point that women need an independent body to be able to take complaints to rather than reporting to superiors at work and she’s not talking about the police.
As an older male I can’t even imagine what it must be like to even have to think about such things.
Places I have worked in — all media — employed a lot of talented women all without exception in my experience able to stand up for themselves.
Jokey male workplace banter has never been something I’ve ever felt comfortable with and I have never and would never make disparaging comments about female work mates.
I’ve always been an equal opportunity employer and gender wasn’t ever an issue when it came to promotion or renumeration.
I’ve hired female journalists to work on newspapers I’ve been an executive at, and at radio stations I’ve run we always made sure we had strong women on air. Just think Caroline Wilson, Virginia Trioli and Sarah Henderson as examples.
You wouldn’t get three more talented individuals than them.
So, this past week you have to ask yourself what exactly have these protests achieved?
I’d argue not much, and I’d also argue that there are plenty of hard working women out there who roll their eyes and say let’s just get on with things.
Australian men are in the main good blokes who don’t assault and rape women and treat them with respect and as equals. This week as a male I’ve felt I’m being looked at as the enemy, someone to be feared.
I’d urge all women who feel they are being discriminated against or uncomfortable at work or worse, sexually assaulted, to report it immediately to their bosses.
If nothing else those angry words shouted into a microphone have put men on notice to do the right thing.
Most of us do. Those who don’t need to be outed.
FIVE TICKS
- South Australian MP Nicole Flint calling out Labour’s hypocrisy.
- Walking down Swan St after Richmond beat Carlton.
- Sitting at an outdoor table on Spring St late Wednesday with food legend Ronaldo Di-Stasio
- Autumn weather in Melbourne
- An inquiry into Veteran suicides one step closer.
FIVE CROSSES
- Victorian Liberal leadership challenge by a bloke no-one has ever heard of.
- Vaccination doomsayers like the Nationals Matt Canavan scaring people.
- Anzac Day events cancelled because of local council red-tape
- Captain Grumpy Neil Mitchell on 3AW responding to my column suggesting Peta Credlin would make a great Victorian Liberal leaderby saying she didn’t have the right personality.
- A can of beer at the MCG still costs $12.00
Originally published as Steve Price: Most men do the right thing, those who don’t should be outed
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