Yes, it is an issue

In Chapter 1 of ‘Why Men Win At Work’ I talk about the many things people say when you try to have the gender equality discussion. There is a list of common and, frankly, predictable and unoriginal responses that are called upon to claim that it’s not really an issue, or that there are other much bigger issues we should be focusing on instead. This month the ‘maze of denial’ has been particularly in evidence and I have seen some absolute classics.

One of my favourites is always the response to any talk of the gender pay gap that it doesn’t exist because it’s illegal - oh my don’t people have a lot of faith in the law and execution of it! Whenever I ask a company if they have a pay gap they are always certain that they don’t, and then we look at the data and of course they virtually always do. The problem is that they aren’t consciously paying women less and if they are breaking any laws it is unknowingly: it’s the invisible and unconscious forces that are at work to create the gap.

And then there is the old ‘it’s tough for men too’ argument. Some out there, for example, seem to genuinely believe that women have not historically been and are not any more sexualized than men, for example with what they are expected to wear in sports such as gymnastics. I’m afraid this kind of thing feels at best like a deflection technique or, at worst, a huge denial of gender equality issues - and you do have to ask why someone would feel the need to do that. Why focus on minimizing or undermining the validity of the wrong, rather than facing the reality of it and putting energy against addressing it?

The most gasp-worthy this month though has been the man who responded to one of my posts with a diatribe claiming that gender inequality simply does not exist and women are totally equal and have never been so lucky, pampered and molly-coddled as they are now. I have politely suggested that he reads the 200 page book I have written to show that oh, yes, it is an issue.

Deep breaths…