Gender inequality is not about behaviour, it’s about bias

Usually, things get tricker before they improve. Unconscious biases, the social stereotypes, and expectations we live by without even realising, are deeply held. Unlearning them takes more than an afternoon because for many men it involves inspecting their own lives from a new vantage point.

Think of it this way: If you’ve been told your whole life that the working world is an equal playing field, and you’ve played by the rules and won. Being told those roles were rigged in your favour doesn’t make you feel privileged it makes you feel defensive. Defensive about the work you have done, the achievements you’ve reached.

Historically we have left men out of the gender equality conversation and the results speak for themselves.

There are feminists, and in the past, I would have counted myself among them, who might say this is pandering. Pandering to men who must be expected to step up and show up as allies without having to make these conversations about them, their experiences, and their feelings.

But gender equality will never be a reality unless we account for people of all genders when balancing the equation. Bringing more people to the table for these discussions, is in and of itself a good thing. Sometimes change happens in leaps and bounds but more often we are moved towards progress in a series of tiny steps and nudges from those who care about us.

Historically we have left men out of the gender equality conversation and the results speak for themselves. For too long, diversity and inclusion efforts have been about helping minority or marginalised groups be more like everyone else. Women, specifically, have been instructed to lean in, to be more confident, to ask for what they want, to take charge and generally behave as men do. Only to be ostracised, ridiculed, or dismissed for doing exactly that.

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Gender inequality is not about behaviour, it’s about bias.

And biases will never be broken down without the involvement of those who hold them. Repositioning the conversation in this way makes solving gender inequality the task of the whole workplace, including the people whom it has historically benefited. Smart employer organisations will take the biases of the people who work for them seriously, not just to avoid risk but to grasp new and untapped benefits.

Policy can only take us so far because gender inequality is deeply culturally ingrained in the very ways our families, communities and workplaces are structured. We are all part of a cultural experiment that requires a seismic shift in the way we relate to one another. I’ve had the privilege of watching that shift starting to happen in real time. And coupled with the genuine ambition of this new federal government and progressive state premiers, the possibilities are endless.

Jamila Rizvi is Deputy Managing Director of Future Women, overseeing content, community, strategy and online learning programs.

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