The issue of workplace misconduct and sexual harassment can make some male leaders feel uncomfortable and unsure of how to proceed, observed Coleen McKinnon, lead advisor for the Consult Australia Champions of Change.
“It can be quite confronting to the point that we’re witnessing some pushback from men,” Coleen said. The founder of Inclusivity Quotient, Coleen works with culture expert and former McKinsey leader Paul Collings, who was also on the panel, to support leaders in largely male-dominated industries to build inclusive workplaces.
A “top-down mandated approach” to diversity targets often leads to backlash, complaints of reverse discrimination and disengagement, Coleen said. Instead, Coleen and Paul guide male leaders through a process to help them understand how historical context plays into current barriers and biases confronting women. They ask men to reflect on the experiences in their own past – whether that's on the football field or in the classroom – and how that may have shaped their views of gender. This process helps men to “make invisible beliefs visible” Paul said.
Challenging long-held beliefs can be confronting, but the benefits are manifold, Paul added. Workers in construction – Australia’s most male-dominated industry – are six times more likely to die from suicide than they are from an accident. And the Man Box Report 2024 found men who hold traditional ideas of gender roles are seven times more likely to have suicidal thoughts.
We are trying to draw together some complex threads, and we need every brilliant mind to focus on the challenge. So, why aren’t more men engaged in this important conversation?
“A lot of times men don't know what to do,” Paul reflected. Practical action – like strategies to help people overcome the bystander effect and call out bad behaviour, or programs that help men to mentor and sponsor women – are good places to start.
Education comes before targets, and the best advocates often come from unlikely quarters, David Raftery suggested. “Find the potential naysayer, the curmudgeon, the cynic or the heretic in the village.” This person, if they are convinced of the importance of cultural change, will become the biggest champion.
Speaking from the floor, James Phillis, Chair of the Consult Australia Champions of Change, applauded the event’s gender balanced panel. Small choices added up to big change, he said.
Men make up 88% of Australia’s construction industry overall, and just 2% of site roles are held by women, so there is no easy answer to the diversity challenge. As Alison Mirams said: “It’s not a quick fix. It’s a very long fix.”