Women in Financial Services
Male Allies – Finishing the Journey Together
Mark.Freed / 03 Sep 2020
E2W are hosting a virtual event on the 24th September Male Allies - Finishing the Journey Together. Leading male allies in the financial services industry will be the guests of E2W Alpha Challengers and questioned on their reasons for supporting gender equality. Event details and registration can be found here:
https://www.e2w.co/women-in-finance/events/detail/alpha-challengers-championing-diversity-episode-3-male-allies-finishing-the-journey-together
Male Allies – Finishing the Journey Together
From the suffragettes, through to the Dagenham women demanding equal pay, to the modern-day women focused on closing the equality gap once and for all, women have fought inch by inch for rights and equality that give them choice. In doing so they have contributed to making the world, our economy and ALL our lives better as result.
Meanwhile a lot of men have either passively looked on or even worse a few have actively blocked progress.
The life of the average man today is so much, in my opinion, better, richer and full of choice compared to how it was even a decade ago, let alone 100 years ago. Much of this improvement can be credited, at least in part, to the achievements of the women’s movements demanding change.
Mr Average now has:
- Social mobility: Our leaders and managers are no longer ‘only’ drawn from a narrow cross section of the privileged. We are increasingly living in a meritocracy, which delivers better outcomes and opportunity for all. We have better bosses and work in better more inclusive environments as a result. But more needs to be done.
- Social freedom: We no longer have to follow in our fathers footsteps. We can choose our careers. We can choose how the relationship with our partner works. We can have the freedom to be gay or change sex. We can be a stay at home father or not the main bread winner. We can be the type of father to our children we want to be. We have so much more choice, but need some more.
- Legal freedom: we can’t be discriminated against due to our race or religion. We have the right to ask for flexible working and to paternity leave. If our marriage goes wrong we are recognised as a ‘caring’ father not just a ‘provider’. But more needs to be done.
If this progress is to continue and we are going to get to the finishing line the only way to do it is together – hand in hand – with women. It is time we supported women in their continued fight for equality and recognise and understood the biases, challenges and barriers that they face.
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