Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
One of the unintended consequences of the #MeToo movement seems to be the alienation of male mentors.
A new set of findings from women’s empowerment non-profit LeanIn.Org and online survey platform SurveyMonkey reveal that, since the media reports of sexual harassment first emerged last fall, male managers are three times as likely to say they are uncomfortable mentoring women and twice as uncomfortable working alone with a woman. The hesitation to meet with women outside of work is even more pronounced: Senior men were 3.5 times more likely to hesitate having a work dinner with a junior female colleague than a male one–and five times more likely to hesitate to travel for work with a junior woman.
In a Facebook post Tuesday morning, LeanIn.Org founder Sheryl Sandberg explained that men’s increasing unwillingness to mentor their female colleagues “undoubtedly will decrease the opportunities women have at work.” The Facebook COO pointed out that, “The last thing women need right now is even more isolation. Men vastly outnumber women as managers and senior leaders, so when they avoid, ice out, or exclude women, we pay the price.”
To encourage more men to mentor their female colleagues, LeanIn.Org Tuesday launched a campaign called #MentorHer. Already, a number of high-profile male business leaders have made the commitment to mentor women, including Oath CEO Tim Armstrong, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and CEO Jeff Weiner, Unilever CEO Paul Polman, and Facebook CEO Zuckerberg. Disney CEO Bob Iger gave a Twitter shoutout to ABC President Channing Dungey, saying he was “proud” of her and his other mentees.
The New York Times’ investigation into allegations of sexual harassment and assault against media producer Harvey Weinstein inspired millions of women around the world to say “me too”—that they, too have experienced unwanted sexual advances or violence. A wave of accusations followed, knocking nearly 100 powerful men off their perches, including actor Kevin Spacey, tech investor Steve Jurvetson, music producer Russell Simmons, among others.
The snowballing effects has led some men to express hesitation about being alone with women. In November, Fox News analyst Brit Hume tweeted: “[Vice President] Mike Pence’s policy of avoiding being alone with women other than his wife looking better every day.”
Far from being a solution, this attitude hurts women; the #MentorHer campaign aims to educate about just why mentorship is so crucial to achieving gender parity in the workplace. Among the powerful statistics the campaign site points out (based on LeanIn.Org’s research):
People with mentors are more likely to get promoted.
Women are 24% less likelythan men to get advice from senior leaders
62% of women of color say the lack of an influential mentor holds them back.
Sandberg writes: “If we’re going to change the power imbalance that enables so much sexual harassment in the first place, we need to ensure women get more mentorship and sponsorship, not less. That’s how we get the stretch assignments that lead to promotions. That’s how we build the networks that put us on the path to exciting opportunities. That’s how we get the respect – and recognition – we deserve.”
Interesting since I have removed my name from a list of those that train conductors to become engineers. I was asked why and I gave some half-baked excuse that I am a lousy teacher.
Real reason is that I have no desire to train females. Women are toxic.
I own a small business - IT related. Most of my employees are men with about 90% fairly young. We've talked about this and they've admitted they're a bit terrified. My corporate culture is incredibly collaborative and joking around is something we always do but now I have people eyeing each new woman through the door as if they're a time bomb about to go off. Even as a female owner, I'm giving far, far more scrutiny to my new female hires trying to make sure they're not going to be overly "sensitive" and upset a carefully constructed team dynamic. People may want to deny this backlash so to speak is happening but it is and I'm not sure how it's all going to shake out.
For the record, before someone pipes up, I've always scrutinized my male hires to ensure they wouldn't be creepers or have issue working with a female boss or team member. But let's be realistic here, there ARE plenty of women out there that see every living little thing as "sexist" and as a business owner, even a female one, I don't need that in my company. Too much of a risk.
I would think this could result in discrimination claims - treating male co-workers differently than female co-workers. If you mentor only men obviously they are getting a special benefit that women cannot access. If you close the door with men and leave it open with women consistently, this could be a real issue of discrimination.
Are you kidding me? Any male manager that has closed door meetings with a woman today is a damn fool. It has been decided here that no male manager will be alone with any female anywhere in the work place. Offices, meeting rooms, break rooms, etc, etc, etc.
Do you have any clue how terrible that sounds?
As guys, we typically aren't going to understand what sexual harrasment feels like, but I've seen its effects on people close to me, and it has major impacts on its victims.
Imagine working somewhere and relying on that paycheck to feed your kids. Imagine your gay, male boss takes a liking to you, and starts calling you into his office to talk. Starts touching you inappropriately, and makes it clear that your job is on the line. Then he starts rubbing his dick into you, and says that you will have to finish up the work at his place since it's getting late.
While he's taking your anal virginity so that you can feed your kids, are you going to tell yourself, it's nothing, this guy probably deserves a raise for his hard work?
No one is saying real cases of harassment don't take place, but the solution cannot be that every woman can destroy a man's life any time she feels like doing so.
As for your hypothetical gay supervisor...
I want my gay supervisor's job, and while he has always been respectful of me, he's in my way.
My gay boss gave me a really bad review, but I plan to claim the bad review is retaliation for rejecting his sexual advances.
We know there are reasons. There are reasons for most things. The fact that anyone disputes it is nonsense. Thanks for posting the information I already knew about because the fact is that most women don't need convincing. I've already posted some of the exceptions. It's only some men while other men are fullying fighting for change. Good for them!
So men have to accept the fact that they will be fired and sued for things they may or may not have done because women want it that way?
Good luck running your company without men!
I won't work under those circumstances.
Everyone doesn't do this. Women still work in offices with men. I would not be planning or altering an office schedule to keep the sexes segregated. As a small office there are often only two people working at a time. If a man refuses to consistently work the schedule and starts demanding special treatment he would have to be let go. Same with a woman who decided she was too precious to work alone with a man. The management would never abide discrimination or segregation by sex just as not by race, age, or sexual orientation.
If a business has an HR department it is bound to be problematic if women not given the same opportunities as men because of some Hollywood scandal and Twitter.
If I was getting shut out at work because of this Metoo stuff you bet I would complain to HR.
The government isn't home right now. It's out making other fictitious studies to promote the idea it's needed to "solve" all of our "problems". Leave a message at the beep...
BEEP
That's what I thought. No facts to back up your bias fake news agenda.
Are you kidding me? Any male manager that has closed door meetings with a woman today is a damn fool. It has been decided here that no male manager will be alone with any female anywhere in the work place. Offices, meeting rooms, break rooms, etc, etc, etc.
Maybe no one should be alone together then. Harassment could happen between two men or two women, and now there are more genders and sexualities so maybe no one can be alone together anymore. Chaperones for everyone.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
