Horror stories of a ‘feminised workplace’ mask the real crisis in male identity | Finn Mackay

Ffirst it was mechanization that threatened our jobs, then AI and now this: Great Feminization is taking over the workplace. Well, that’s according to American journalist Helen Andrews, who popularized this thesis in a speech at the National Conference on Conservatism in Washington DC.

The idea is that too many women in the workplace and in positions of power has led to the dominance of stereotypical feminine values, to the detriment of everyone. Feminine things like conflict resolution over manly language, harsh HR departments, or lack of healthy, aggressive competition, have all created an imbalance in the workplace and the world, removing stereotypical masculine values. Andrews fears for her sons and their future in a feminized world that she believes threatens us all.

The thesis makes two fundamental errors. First, stereotypes of femininity do not represent all women, any more than stereotypes of masculinity define all men. Second, no one needs a feminized world, whatever this nonsense means, but we all need a feminist world. There is a big difference.

For centuries, the policy has been to exclude women from education and most professions, although women have of course always worked – in agriculture, in factories, or in the service of the wealthy. Much of this money was not in the formal economy, but rather in the form of cash. Work such as childcare, laundry, or sewing was done at home rather than in the public sphere. Yet work has always been gendered as masculine, as formal, paid employment outside the home has been seen as the preserve of men. Work therefore comes to define masculinity, and therefore men, considered to be at the heart of masculine identity.

It’s not just conservatives who put forward these kinds of arguments. Scott Galloway, American academic and author of a highly controversial new book, Notes on Being a Man, summed up masculinity this way: “getting up at six fucking o’clock in the morning and going to work and doing a shitty job so you can protect your family economically.” In his book, he links falling wages and unemployment rates to a crisis in masculinity and men’s sense of identity. Even if he does not advocate the withdrawal of women from the world of work, he presents these problems – which affect everyone in the job market – as male concerns.

The real problem facing men is that, like femininity, masculinity is still defined by backward stereotypes of what men should be. These stereotypes – including visible indicators of financial success, respect and seniority in the workplace and public sphere – have always been out of reach for many, and perhaps now most, men. A new report, The State of UK Men, from Beyond Equality, found that 88% of men surveyed thought being a man meant providing for your family financially – and just over half felt it was more important for men, rather than women, to be breadwinners. However, 40% said their income was not enough to meet their daily needs, and more than half constantly worried about their financial future.

Women face these same economic challenges. The same survey found that equal numbers of men and women have no meaning in their lives. The gender pay gap in the UK is around 13% for all employees and women are still more likely than men to be in part-time work, which is traditionally lower paid. Women are also more likely to be heads of household and raise children; they are what charities such as the Women’s Budget Group call the main ‘shock absorbers’ of poverty.

The violence of poverty affects everyone, but society reacts with special sympathy and sorrow when men face obstacles to succeeding in the areas we have chosen to define their worth. This is what I call the burden of masculinity. Attacks on men’s income, employment or job security are seen not only as a challenge on a human level, as they would be for anyone, but also as a challenge doubly so because they are presented as attacks and affronts to masculinity itself. From this point of view, it is not that 50% of experiences of precarity – those of women – are not seen; it’s that they’re just not considered as bad for women, because women don’t carry that extra burden of masculinity.

The gendered effects of life experiences, such as dismissal or low pay, are clearly real. The State of British Men finds that work and stable finances are still widely seen as the measure of men’s worth, leading to failure that appears as an existential threat. It’s the pain and shame of not meeting gender expectations. Women are no strangers to it either, in the incessant pressure of beauty standards attached to femininity, of the presumption of motherhood and judgments about motherhood, or in the status attached to male partners. Expectations may be different, but it’s the gendered rules that are the problem, rigging the game for all of us, setting us up for failure in one area or another.

What men need to succeed in the workforce has nothing to do with the number of women employed – it has to do with job security, decent wages, affordable rents, reliable sick pay and flexible parenting and care work. It’s also what men say they want: One of the report’s many positives is that 83% of men believe in sharing household chores and care with their partners, and 80% want practical support to help fathers be more present in family life. These policies would help everyone – not just at work, but around the world, because we all need to give and receive love and care in our families and communities. If you want to call it feminized, so be it. I call it feminist.

• Finn Mackay is the author of Female Masculinities and the Gender Wars and a lecturer in sociology at the University of the West of England, Bristol.

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