The Pocket Business Case for Engaging Men

We are frequently asked, and with such compelling need, to explain what
is the business case? So, here is the Global Pocket Business Case.
Despite equal numbers of women at entry levels, leadership
continues to be dominated by men.
In the Fortune 500 women held only 16.9% of corporate board seats in 2013, indicating
no significant year-over-year uptick for the 8th straight year. And only 14.6% of
Executive Officer positions were held by womenthe 4th consecutive year of no yearover-year growth. Women held only 8.1% of top earner slotsagain no change from the
prior year.i
Europes companies, while progressing on Board balance in some countries because of
quotas, still struggle to balance their executive teams. Less than a third of European
companies have at least two women on their Executive Committees. None have a
female CEO. Of the 1,025 executive committee members of Europes Top 100
companies, the story is the continued and absolute (89%) dominance of men.
Of the 11% that are women, the majority (58%) are in staff or support roles (the pink
ghetto), a tiny bit better than the 65% in the US. This subtler gender gap is more
difficult to detect when companies only count the total number of men and women at
each grade level and is the primary reason we still find so few women in the C-suite.ii

Innovation and economic success will be impacted if women continue

to be underutilized.
"One third of global CEOs polled recently said a shortage of talent had prevented their
business from innovating effectively. Using only half the deck of talent available to them
does not make business sense when a company's talent pool is a vital component of its
success."iii
Globally women now account for a majority of students in 93 countries while men are
favoured in only 46. Women earn more bachelors degrees than men and have an edge
over men (56 to 44%) in masters degrees.iv Over 60% of Global CEOs are concerned
about the availability of key skills for future growth.v

There is extensive evidence that companies with more women in

leadership have higher economic performance.
Multiple studies by Credit Suisse, Catalyst, McKinsey, and Deloitte have proven with
greater gender diversity in the board room and C-Suite financial performance increases
by 33% to 50% on stats like ROE and Return on Sales when compared to companies
with less diversity.

GenderAllies 2014

As technology accelerates the rate of change in business and

government, what is demanded of leaders in a global economic
future?
Along with social sensitivity and equal turns at conversation, studies have suggested
that the collective intelligence of a group is strongly correlated with the proportion of
females in the group, making for smarter and more effective teams.vi
Two-thirds of survey respondents felt that "The world would be a better place if men
thought more like women", including 76% of the French and Brazilians and 70% of
Germans. Those statistics include majorities of men who equate masculine incumbency
with income disparity, continuing high levels of unemployment and political gridlock. vii

Men are NOT engaged in gender initiatives.

Catalyst showed that increasing mens awareness of gender bias is an important first
step in enlisting their support for organizational initiatives to correct gender bias.viii
In a study on the engagement of White men in diversity when asked to rate the D&I
effectiveness of white male leaders in their company on twelve key competencies White
men responded with a 45% positive effectiveness rating, while all others (people of
color and white women) responded with a 21% positive effectiveness rating.ix

Men can benefit both personally and professionally from Gender

Partnership.
Many men place a priority on career advancement, sacrificing relationships with family,
spouses, and friends relationships that improve quality of life and offer an important
source of psychological support in times of stress.x
When a company consciously stopped reinforcing and rewarding masculine norms the
safety record improved by 84% and more importantly, men reported finding more
rewarding and fulfilling was to express their identities as men in the workplace.xi

Census of Fortune 500: Still No Progress After Years of No Progress. (Catalyst 2013)
Unlocking the full potential of women at work. (McKinsey & Company 2012)
iii Sibylle Rupprecht, Executive Director, Cataylst Europe
iv World Atlas of Gender Equality in Education. UNESCO, 2012
v PwC 17th Annual Global CEO Survey
vi Williams Woolley, A. et al. Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance of Human Groups,
Science v. 330, p. 686 (2010).
vii Gerzema, John and DAntonio, Michael. The Athena Doctrine: How Women (and the Men who Think Like Them)
Will Rule the Future. Jossey-Bass (2013)
viii Engaging Men in Gender Initiatives: What Change Agents Need to Know (Catalyst, 2009)
ix White Men in Leadership Study (January 2013). whitemensleadershipstudy.com
x Shaw Meghan Burn and A. Zachary Ward, Mens conformity to Traditional Masculinity and Relationship
Satisfaction, Psychology of Men & Masculinity, vol. 6, no. 4 (October 2005): p. 254-263
xi Gendering the Field Towards Sustainable Livelihoods for Mining Communities (2011 ANU E Press)
ii

GenderAllies 2014