Everyday sexism in the workplace – which 57% of women in the consulting professions still witness or experience – is the result of entrenched social and cultural conditioning. “But what’s learned can be unlearned,” said SMEC’s James Phillis in a powerful reflection on the progress of the Champions of Change Coalition.

SMEC’s Chief Executive Officer for Australia & New Zealand James Phillis is Chair of the Consult Australia Champions of Change Group – a coalition of 10 companies that lead more than 20,000 employees across Australia.

At the Consult Australia Champions of Change Industry Luncheon, James told a packed crowd that men play a central role in preventing and reducing sexual harassment but are often constrained by a misunderstanding of sexual harassment and its consequences.

The Consult Australia Champions of Change Consult Group has made some clear year-on-year progress to achieve gender balance in leadership teams.

But the 2022 Everyday Respect report found that 57% of women had experienced or witnessed ‘everyday sexism’ in their workplace in the previous years. A similar survey by Professionals Australia found 22% of women in engineering roles had experienced sexual harassment in the previous three years, compared with just 2.4% of men.

The Champions of Change research found two in five people in the consulting industry experience ‘exclusionary behaviour’, or “everyday sexism, casual homophobia, racism, ableism and ageism”. 

Frequently invisible, this learned behaviour can entrench stereotypes and threaten a person’s sense of belonging. But exclusionary behaviour, the report found, is often perceived as “too small to make a fuss about” and people often just let it pass. 

“The consequences of exclusionary behaviours, and particularly sexual harassment, are incredibly damaging, negatively impacting* confidence, job satisfaction and mental health. They have been dismissed or long over-looked and under-recognised,” James said.

It can be challenging for male leaders to reconcile the statistics with their own experience of the workplace, James noted. Gender inequality “runs deep” as learned and sometimes unconscious behaviours and social norms.

“Outdated messages around the role of girls and women inform our conscious and unconscious biases,” James said. These messages start at birth and are repeated in schools, on football fields, and in the media. “It’s pervasive, and so ingrained that at times it’s very hard for me, as a man who is generally not disadvantaged by these behaviours, to see it.”

Once seen, everyday sexism cannot be unseen. 

As James said: “What’s learned can be unlearned, and replaced with better options, particularly when we understand the impact that discriminatory beliefs and behaviours have on our female, and all our other, peers.”

The United Nations’ Gender Social Norms Index, published in 2020, found almost 90% of people globally are biased against women. Close to half feel men are better suited to politics and more than 40% believe men make better business leaders.

It is possible to accelerate change in one generation. But the shift requires male leaders with vulnerability and the strength to speak up. 

The new Champions of Change Disrupt the System report provides policy templates and tools to help companies prevent and respond to sexual harassment in the workplace.

But Disrupt the System also emphasises the importance of elevating sexual harassment as a leadership priority. As Dr Michael Flood, an internationally recognised academic on masculinity and gender equality, argues: the principle of gender equality must be “built into our very definitions of leadership”.

James Phillips challenged the leaders in the room to “be curious, to challenge assumptions, and always, to listen to and learn from women, including to consider what it would be like if their experiences of exclusion were my own”.

If you missed Consult Australia’s Champions of Change forum, you can still read James Phillis’ speech, or download Disrupt the System.

*According to the Fifth National Survey on Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces, published by the Australia Human Rights Commission in 2022, two thirds (67%) of workers experienced negative mental health impacts; 62% reported decreased job satisfaction and 57% reduced self-esteem and confidence.