A policy paradox: why gender equity is men’s work

ABSTRACT

Even in contexts of gender parity, people who identify as men comprise a modest to bare majority; in administrative and other leadership positions, men comprise a broad majority and are thereby unavoidably a plurality of those involved in diversity, equity, and inclusion centred policy change efforts. Paradoxically, men’s advocacy for gender-equity often unintentionally conveys gendered biases. We therefore assert that the development of conscientização or critical consciousness in people who identify as men must be explicitly addressed if policies and practices are to be effectively transformed to achieve gender equity. That is, men must come to the recognition that their own best interests are served by the unravelling of gendered systems where unearned over-advantaging for men abounds.

KEYWORDS:

• Equity
• gender
• men
• policy
• organizational change

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge support from NSF awards to North Dakota State University (HRD 0811239 and 1500604). The authors thank their universities’ ADVANCE FORWARD and Advocates & Allies team for their contributions to policy transformation. We also thank Dr. Sandra Holbrook for proofreading early versions of this essay.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the NSF [HRD 0811239 and 1500604].

Notes on contributors

Cali L. Anicha

Cali L. Anicha, serves as a public schools educator, an adjunct instructor in American Multicultural Studies at Minnesota State University Moorhead, and as an NDSU FORWARD Consultant. She has an MS degree in Special Education from Minnesota State University Moorhead, as well as an MS in Experimental Psychology and a PhD in Institutional Analysis from North Dakota State University. She is engaged in a range of community and education-based equity and justice efforts, and has worked with the FORWARD team since 2010.

Canan Bilen-Green

Canan Bilen-Green is Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and Equity, and Dale Hogoboom Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at North Dakota State University. She received her PhD from the University of Wyoming. She holds MS degrees from Bilkent University and University of Wyoming. She served as lead investigator and director of the National Science Foundation funded ADVANCE FORWARD Institutional Transformation program and the ADVOCATE FORWARD PLAN-D partnership project. Dr. Bilen-Green formed, led, or served on various institutional committees including Commission of the Status of Women Faculty, Women with Disabilities Task Force, and Promotion to Professor Task Force.

Roger Green

Roger Green is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North Dakota State University, where he teaches, conducts signal processing research, and serves as Undergraduate Program Coordinator. He obtained his MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wyoming. Since its inception in 2008, Dr. Green has been a lead member of the NDSU Advance FORWARD Advocates, a group of male faculty dedicated to effecting departmental and institutional change in support of gender equality. As part of this group, he regularly trains men, at NDSU and other institutions, to better serve as gender equity allies.