Survey reveals insane thing half of Aussie men believe
New research in Australian workplaces has revealed some interesting insights into the beliefs of more than 50 per cent of men.
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New research has found that 50 per cent of Australian men feel that reverse discrimination is occurring in the workplace, with women being boosted up the career ladder simply because of their gender.
The survey of 1000 workers, conducted by The Dream Collective, a global diversity, equity, and inclusion consultancy, also found men are “fatigued” when it comes to discussing gender equality, but still hold a host of problematic opinions about the issue.
For example: If women fall behind, men aren’t to blame, but it could be due to the drive or motivation of women.
50 per cent of respondents also said they felt women were already treated equally in the workplace.
It’s a finding that doesn’t ring true for Samantha Stone*, a senior IT executive for a government department.
Ms Stone recently attended an IT conference with a $10 million budget to spend but says she was completely “ignored” by the males there.
She said she is “frustrated” to see little improvement in the past 30 years since she's been in the male dominated sector.
“I have experienced boys clubs and they don’t even realise it,” she told news.com.au.
“The worse thing is men are going around saying that a woman gets a job because she is a woman. If I ever hear someone saying that it makes me furious. I haven’t not got to where I am because I’m a woman, I got to where I am despite being a woman, so I think they use that as a convenient excuse.
“It does alarm me to hear people justifying not getting selected to interview for a job because they say they want a woman and that’s not true … I think that’s white males looking for an excuse.”
Now in her 50s, Ms Stone said her experience at the conference wasn’t just specific to her either. Another senior female also couldn’t capture vendors’ attention until she walked around with a male colleague.
“She was asking about products and the vendor was directing the responses to the male,” she explained.
“He turned around and said ‘Don’t tell me, she’s the one with the money’ and it’s interesting the men don’t notice it until they experience it.”
Ms Stones said she felt like a “frog in boiling water” as it took her years to recognise she was being ignored at technical expos due to her gender, before a “hallelujah” moment just four years ago.
She suggested people in the IT industry needed training about unconscious bias.
Even more “worrying” for Ms Stone was she went to judge projects at a university event and the young male student directed all his responses to her male colleague.
“He said ‘I couldn’t believe that he didn’t look at you, didn’t answer your questions and was directing them to me’. He was quite astounded to recognise it,” she said.
She added gender equality in the workplace is “crawling” and she doesn’t want to wait another 30 years to see an equal footing.
New data released this year showed that it would take 26 years to close the gender pay gap in Australia.
It showed men earn $261.50 per week more than women working full-time or a difference of 14.2 per cent, according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA).
Disturbingly, the gap has risen by 0.8 per cent over the last six months, meaning August 31 marked 61 extra days from the end of the previous financial year that women, on average, must work to earn the same annual pay as men.
The rise in the national gender pay gap was largely driven by a higher growth in men’s full-time wages with a 1.8 per cent increase, double the rate compared to women.
Australia also finished equal last with the UK in a ranking of the gender pay gap across six countries, a major international report revealed.
Sarah Liu, founder and managing director of The Dream Collective, said gender fatigue and claims of reverse discrimination doesn’t necessarily equate to progress stalling.
“When you’re so used to your privilege, equality may feel like discrimination because when you’re driving in the fast lane, any adjustment feels like a loss. The key is to encourage honest conversation and sentiment around this topic so men don’t feel they’re ill-informed, uninformed or sexists if they ask certain questions,” she said.
“To reject and refuse isn’t the answer here. If men are feeling that reverse discrimination is at play and that men and women are already treated equally, that doesn’t mean we mock and exclude. We need to engage, bring them in.”
She added men will make the biggest difference to gender equality.
“We need the voices of men to move the dial and if we build a more equitable and inclusive society, everyone benefits,” she said.
While the report found that 12 per cent of Australian men would volunteer to lead the charge to champion gender equality and diversity, equity and inclusion training – 57 per cent reported that the time required for training and discussion deterred them.
Transport, accommodation/food, and information media/telecommunication workers are highly likely to help champion gender equality, while public administration/safety and retail trade industries were less enthusiastic, the survey found.
The research also revealed that while awareness and willingness to engage in gender equality initiatives is high, it is not driven by personal convictions.
It found 61 per cent of men said while they make great efforts to meet targets for women’s career advancement this is driven primarily by obligation, as opposed to strong personal convictions.
“As you can imagine, women feel especially fatigued by this conversation,” Ms Liu said. “There is a lot of talk going on and it has only intensified recently because people are becoming more and more impatient about the lack of progress. The reality remains that the gender gap is not changing.”
*Name has been changed
Originally published as Survey reveals insane thing half of Aussie men believe
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