What if, instead of teaching women that they have to raise their hands to speak at meetings, we taught men to be more reflective and circumspect; instead of telling women to tamp down their emotions at the office, a man was told that he didn’t appear committed enough to the job because he’s never shed tears over it; instead of pushing women to take public credit for their work, we publicly admonish men who don’t properly acknowledge others’ contributions? I was just invited to a seminar on public speaking skills for women — where’s the class on listening skills for men?
We need to both create more room for women to take on “masculine” attributes — as well as pay equal attention to the inverse: pushing for more freedom for men to take on “feminine” attributes. (And maybe once we do that, we can finally eliminate this binary concept of masculine/feminine attributes, which only serve to hold both groups back. But that’s an issue for another time.)
If we’re teaching women that they shouldn’t be afraid to be make firm decisions (and evaluating them on it), why aren’t we teaching men to, say, be better caregivers to their teams (and evaluating them on it)? It’s because the culture values the male attributes (which are set as diametrically opposed to the female attributes, thus fundamentally in conflict), and sets those as the standard.Read more in Medium. Thanks, +Ashley Meyers
