If we wish to discuss the role of men in promoting gender equality in tech, a short preamble is necessary.
In a now famous 1977 study, Harvard business professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter discussed the social phenomenon of tokenisation – the tendency to treat members of a smaller group as representatives of their entire group – in the context of women in the professional world.
Kanter showed that even in the absence of open sexist prejudice, women in an environment that tokenises them will be held to different standards, placed under greater scrutiny and pressure, and stereotyped in a variety of ways. The result is that women are pushed away from said environment, while men’s prejudices that women just don’t fit into it are reinforced.
When does tokenisation occur? According to Kanter’s original investigation, it’s observable in any company where the number of women represent less than 20-35% of the leadership positions. More recent studies have suggested that the threshold may sit at a more precise 25%.
You may have already deduced why this is especially relevant to the tech industry. According to the most recent statistics, women represent about 1 in 4 of every tech worker in the US and 1 in 3 in Europe – almost precisely the minimum and the maximum margins (20-35%) of the threshold required to avoid tokenisation.
In other words, a tech company in which women are not being tokenised is statistically quite rare.
Shared (Mis)understanding
This scholarly preamble was necessary because aspiring allies in the world of tech often seem equipped with more good will than understanding. The most common misconception is to think that sexism in tech is of the type represented by, say, Elon Musk’s tweets – something that is overt and intentional.
Of course, very much sexism is exactly like that, and it’s a good thing when allies speak out against it – but an ally who only recognises this type of sexism is missing the bigger picture, and the field where he is most likely to have the biggest impact.
An environment where women are a minority can be hostile to them even without overt sexism. This is something that is as difficult for a man to perceive, as it is likely for him to unwittingly be involved in it – and this is precisely why it is his responsibility to address it.
Group Dynamics And Emergent Sexism
What do we mean, when we say that a company culture is hostile to women?
Imagine that there is a group of 10 people, with only 1 woman. The men may be used to speaking in a language which is acceptable to each other, such as socialising by inoffensive ‘ritual’ mockery, or joking about inappropriate topics.
If the woman in this group is not comfortable with this, speaking out will make the others perceive her as the ‘strange’ or the ‘unreasonable’ one in the group. Interactions with her – or even simply in her presence – will become awkward and stifled.
Often this will happen even in the absence of conflict, if this hypothetical woman so much as discusses a personal interest that the men in the group find unpalatable. Her choice is then to shut up and conform to an environment she does not like, or stand up for herself and go alone against the entire group.
Note that in this scenario, none of the men are actively being hostile to the woman or trying to push her away. They are simply adopting a language that is comfortable to them, and which happens not to feel comfortable to that one individual colleague.
When feminists speak of a desirable ‘cultural transformation’, they’re not referring only to broader culture at large. They also mean the micro-cultures in which you exist, and as a tech worker, that means your company culture.
What can you do to make this culture more inclusive?
Challenging Bro Culture
One responsibility all allies share, regardless of their rank or position within their company, is to identify and resist ‘bro culture’ – or, language and mannerisms predicated on tropes of masculinity.
Again, remember that this doesn’t necessarily take the form of overt sexism. Perhaps the language used in the office is casually indecent, vulgar and profane, or humour and expressions not inclusive for women may be common.
Look beyond the language too. Perhaps your team has a tradition of playing table football together after work and making it ultra-competitive, with outcomes like the losers paying for the drinks of the winners. Socialisation through exaggerated competition has been identified as a classic homosocial ritual, meaning that it is far more likely to appeal to men than to women.
Your job then is to resist and call out both language and traditions that are likely to make women uncomfortable. If you’re worried that this might make you lose popularity points, well… you are precisely right. You will sometimes come across as unfriendly and overly serious. After all, who could possibly have a problem with playing table football?
However, this is precisely what makes you an ally. By voicing concerns about inclusivity, you are creating a situation where a woman who wishes to express similar concerns is no longer framed as alone against the group. Moreover, she is no longer tokenised – she can express such concerns without risk that the rest of the team will perceive it as a ‘woman’s problem’.
Welcoming Difference In Company Culture
Fostering a more inclusive environment isn’t just about resisting a culture that is exclusive. It is also about being open to elements that are usually not present in that culture.
When these elements enter an environment where they are not typical, the initial response usually ranges from confusion to anger. Someone – perhaps even you – may think it ‘looks unprofessional’ if a colleague decorates her workstation in pink, for example.
For women from different cultural backgrounds, this friction will be even more marked, with traditions such as wearing the veil being the target not just of sexist but racist discrimination as well.
As well as different preferences, women may have different needs than men. If a woman shows up at a video-call with a baby clinging from her shoulders, she’s not being ‘unprofessional’ – it’s more likely that she didn’t have other options at that moment.
Any of the above are examples where a team composed mostly of men may respond negatively – not necessarily by direct hostility (‘that pink workstation looks stupid’), but simply by comments that highlight the difference and the ‘abnormality’ of the practice (‘that is… a lot of pink’).
Except these things are only abnormal in teams where normality is the absence of women. Your job as an ally is not only to be open and welcoming to the preferences and needs of women – it is also to stand up for them. If your colleagues suggest that some habit or quirk not typical of men is ‘weird’, respond that you think it’s their reaction to it that is weird. Normalise the feminine.
A Duty To Speak Up
We have focused this article on company culture and non-overt sexism, as this is the topic that is both the most widely applicable, and also the least often acknowledged and understood by aspiring allies.
It goes without saying, however, that you also have a duty to resist the more obvious forms of sexism, like jokes about blondes using a computer or misogynistic behaviour, and to be supportive of women’s initiatives and organisations (including your Employee Resource Group, if your company has one).
As well, while the above guide was written for everyone, know that if you are an entrepreneur or an executive then all of the above responsibilities are tripled. And on top of that, you have the highest responsibility of them all: it’s on you to hire more women, so that at a minimum they represent more than Kanter’s 35% threshold.
The possible scenarios, outlets and opportunities in which a man can help gender representation in tech, from small things like encouraging a little girl to learn programming to organised activism, are far too many for a single article to cover them all. But whatever your position, you will find that you can always speak up when it matters.
So speak up. Not instead of women, but with them.
