What #IWD isn't about
I struggled with #IWD this year. Obviously not the bits about celebrating great women or schools going back—oh no, they were ace.
What worries me is how much the debate about working more productively and more happily has been swallowed up into the #IWD jamboree. The Minister of Women and Equalities, Liz Truss, called for flexible working to be normalised, ahead of International Women’s Day, fanfaring it as a benefit for women.
As if having a life, working sensible hours, and having responsibilities out of work is a ‘woman thing’; men need not trouble their handsome, busy heads with such diversions.
Aside from this being offensive, it is also a misrepresentation of what a lot of men want—and a terrible way to drive change.
This issue is best explained by a model I used when working in research to explain campaigning: a mash of American politics + the outline of Colin the Caterpillar.
The Base
These people support remote and flexible working policies, work/life boundaries, and equal treatment of parental leave. The Base tend to be vocal and public.
The Swing
Might be people who work 80 hours a week (but wish they didn’t).
Maybe they’re:
thinking to the future and wondering if they always want to work this way
looking back on their careers and wondering if there was a better way
senior enough to have set their own boundaries, but not active on the subject
The Reach
Could be people who:
have traded in a personal life by working so hard they’ve divorced twice
or the 18% of people surveyed this week who think pay equality is fake news
maybe they think real business demands 24/7 commitment and anyone who disagrees is naive
The Reach avoids the issue wherever possible, for fear of someone yelling ‘Dinosaur!’ at them.
The voices that are missing the most in terms of change are the men in the middle group. They can see the issue—it’s their problem too—and have to engage if anything is to really change.
For this reason, I’m considering not agreeing to participate in business panels (Wanels?) or events on these subjects, unless men are included on the panel and in the audiences.
Tell me what you think.
Next week?
Eleanor Mills, former editor of the Sunday Times Magazine, on her new initiative Noon and what older women really(really) want.
Christine
P.S. In far more frivolous news, the Telegraph sent a team over for a photoshoot and it was the most exciting thing the Duke on Bridgerton.
Thanks so much to everyone who helped with quotes. Results & the pooch in tomorrow’s Telegraph magazine.
P.P.S. Not fleas, an ear infection (see vid)
