The Strategies That Male Allies Use to Advance Women in Workplace Settings

• In Event: The Other Half: Involving Men in the Strategy and Efforts to Advance Women’s Leadership

Short Description

Considerable research on the underrepresentation of women has done little to impact the composition of organizational executive leadership, which continues to be dominated by men. However, when organizations engage men in the conversation, they realize more success in affecting cultural change and advancing women to upper leadership. In this paper, the contributions of male allies are explored with the goal of gaining a deeper understanding of specific behaviors and actions men use that they perceive as beneficial in advancing women.

Detailed Abstract

Over the last several decades, academic research and the popular press have brought attention to the lack of gender parity in the workforce. While progress has been made at increasing the number of women in entry level and even in lower-level management positions, men continue to dominate the upper echelons of organizations, leaving women consistently underrepresented or completely absent from senior leadership teams (Bowers, 2016; Cheng, Ng, Trump-Steele, Corrington, & Hebl, 2018; Krentz, Wierzba, Abouzahr, Garcia-Alonso, & Taplett, 2017; Sawyer & Valerio, 2018). This unfortunate dynamic continues, despite increasing evidence that shows when organizations have a greater number of women in leadership positions, they enjoy a competitive advantage and perform better (Bowers, 2016). Organizations with more women in leadership show an increased capacity for problem-solving due to diverse perspectives, as well as increased resilience. These elements are critical to the survival of modern organizations because they support innovation and the capacity to adapt in an ever-changing environment (Krentz et al., 2017).

While some organizations have instituted programs intended to increase the number of women leaders in their organization, these efforts often focus on the women and what they need to change. Yet promotions and advancement opportunities may ultimately be rooted in an organization’s culture. Since men constitute the majority of an organization’s leadership, their involvement is critical to changing the culture to one where diversity and gender-parity are valued (Cheng et al., 2018; Shref, Tangirala, & Weber, 2017).

The limited research available on male allies in the workplace shows they can make a positive difference in the efforts to advance women. Male leaders who serve as role models for gender inclusive leadership are willing to confront bias and call out sexist behaviors. As male allies, they enact change in the organization’s culture by actively and intentionally supporting the advancement of women while influencing the attitudes and behaviors of other men (Bowers, 2016; Cheng et al., 2018; Drury & Kaiser, 2014; Sawyer & Valerio, 2018). Because of the critical role that male allies can play to support women’s advancement and to influence organization cultural change, it is prudent to understand the strategies and behaviors intentionally used by men to support women.

This paper is a component of a larger study designed to provide a deeper understanding of the intentional strategies and behaviors male allies use to support the advancement of women. The purpose of this paper is to report on the qualitative portion of the study which focused on understanding the perspectives of men who viewed themselves as supporting the advancement of women in the workplace to identify the specific strategies and behaviors they used.

The research was done using a survey instrument that was distributed to men and women in various workplace settings within one specific U.S. state. Based on their self-reported gender, participants were asked three open-ended questions. Eighty men responded, and each response was analyzed and coded to separate unique concepts or strategies. Each coded response was in turn individually reviewed to identify its main concept. Main concepts were then grouped to generate initial emerging themes. Further refinement of the emerging themes was done to determine the final main categories.

The open-ended questions asked of male participants included, “In your workplace experiences, what behaviors and strategies have you engaged in that have been helpful in the professional development and advancement of women (we love lists and stories!)?” The second open-ended question asked male participants, “What other strategies and behaviors have you observed where men have supported or advanced women you know?” Finally, male participants were asked, “What other ideas do you have that men (peers, supervisors, managers, and leaders) could do in workplace settings to support and advance women?”

The findings show that men intentionally engage in specific behaviors they perceive as beneficial to supporting the advancement of women. These behaviors and actions provide insight into how men in the workplace view their role as male allies. Details of the study’s findings will be shared during the presentation, along with discussions for practical implications and future research. The results of this study provide a critical insight as to the intentional efforts made by men who support the advancement of women and contributes to understanding the perceptual differences of men and women regarding what actions successfully support women’s advancement. Understanding perceptual differences can be a valuable tool as organizations work to develop male allies and successfully create gender diverse leadership teams.

Presenters

• April Townsend, Townsend Consulting

• Susan R. Madsen, Utah State University