Reflections on 'HeForShe Whitehall: What Women Want, and What Men Can Do'

According to a World Economic Forum report from 2016, just 20% of the global workforce delivering professional services to government is female. The brilliant ‘HeForShe Whitehall’ event last week made me think properly about what my role is in changing (and not perpetuating) that, and I thought I'd share some of my reflections on it here.

Initiated and driven by my super (sadly former PA Consulting) colleague Hattie Davison, HeForShe Whitehall was sponsored by PA Consulting and attended by over 250 civil servants, with double that number of overall applications to attend - fantastic in itself. A panel discussion, featuring people from the very top of the civil service, UN Women, and the diplomatic world covered understanding the role of privilege in gender inequality, practical steps organisations can take to tackle it in their workplace, and the action individuals (in particular, but not exclusively men) can take.

HeForShe is a UN Women initiative that campaigns for gender equality as a human rights issue, not just a women's issue. One of my favourite moments from the event was Laura Haynes (Chair of the UK branch of UN Women) responding to why equality is taking too long to achieve with a gloriously arch:

“well, we've been spending a lot of time trying to fix women…”

HeForShe is not about whose fault it is; it's about challenging people to move beyond awareness, to get grips with their own roles in the whole issue and the impact they have, and recognising more subtle barriers to equality like unconscious bias. And more importantly to do something to challenge it - that's where I find myself now.

Here are some of the things that resonated with me:

• It's better to have a conversation about gender inequality and use the wrong words than not to have it all. We were told last night that benign intent would be assumed. The point being lots of people, men in particular, have fear around talking about the issue in case they say something that gets misconstrued. We need open dialogue, especially in the workplace, so asserting the understanding of 'benign intent' is really important.
•  Although change has to happen everywhere, the event was very much focussed on change within organisations - in this case the civil service. Achieving gender equality will not be an organic process - it would've happened already if it was. While organisations are only one arena, within them is a significantly greater control of the environment to effect change as opposed to society generally where impediments to equality may be more deeply ingrained. Basically, if we can't achieve gender equality in organisations, then it looks pretty bleak for change everywhere. Having the Chief Exec of the Civil Service on the panel was a powerful statement of commitment to on-going change within Whitehall.

So back to the WEF report. What are my immediate commitments, as a white middle-class male in what appears to be a stubbornly white middle-class male-dominated industry? And how do I avoid being a lip-service feminist? I figure that nobody needs me to speak on their behalf, but sometimes it helps to have a little space to speak. Practically, that means me being aware of who's in a room, who's talking, and who's really being heard - and making sure the floor is shared. Somewhere on my LinkedIn profile there are boasts of my facilitation prowess, so I should be able to manage that.

The other thing is a bit thornier. There's plenty of evidence now that diverse teams deliver better results, even though it feels harder in the moment (Business in the Community has a great summary). If I care about doing great work (I do) that has massive impact (I do) that makes public services better (I really, really do) then I need to be doing that in a team that gives me the best shot at it. And the studies suggest the team needs to be a diverse one - and that’s not limited to gender diversity. At the moment, I don't pick the team. But I have a voice that will be pointing out when the team I'm in isn't diverse enough to deliver the best possible results.

These are tiny steps, but another thing I picked up from Laura Haynes is that change happens quietly…at first. My challenge to colleagues who've read this far is to join me in collective, larger, noisier action.