The World Economic Forum estimates it will take over 200 years to close the gender pay gap globally. In Australia, at current rates it will be 80 years before there is gender parity in senior management roles. Meanwhile, women often trade flexibility for career progression and are also more likely to be discriminated against in the workplace. Why are we not making more progress? In today’s analysis, Sue Williamson (SWilliamsonUNSW) from UNSW (@UNSWCanberra) provides insight into how gender fatigue is slowing down progress for women in the workplace. This analysis is a summary of a longer article which can be found here.

We are currently witnessing a great outpouring of feminist activism, largely centred around action to highlight and prevent violence against women. The latest surge of activism arguably commenced with the ‘pink pussy hat’ movement in the USA, where in January 2017, women wore pink knitted hats in protest at the election of a misogynist President who bragged about ‘grabbing women by their pussies’. An estimated 3.6 to 4.6 million North Americans attended various ‘Women’s Marches’ across the USA. Gender equality was then propelled along by the ‘#MeToo’ movement, which also originated in America.

Australian women joined in this campaign, possibly recalling former Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s famous ‘misogyny speech’ directed to Tony Abbott some years earlier. Women told their own stories of sexual harassment and abuse, which led to a range of Australian luminaries being named as harassers. The ongoing domestic and family violence against women also gained prominence, propelled by campaigns such as ‘Counting Dead Women’, a Facebook site dedicated to counting the number of women in Australia who have died as a result of violence (mostly domestic violence). The outpouring of community anger and grief at the highly publicised rapes and murders of young women in Australia also gives force to this issue.

Some small strides towards gender equality are being made, however, progress is uneven, as three reports released in 2019 demonstrate. Firstly, researchers at the University of Canberra found that while Australians overwhelmingly acknowledge that gender inequality is still a problem, two-fifths of all men believe that gender equality measures do not include men. They also believe that ‘political correctness’ gives women an advantage in the workplace. Secondly, University of Sydney researchers found that what young women most want from work is respect, with only two-thirds saying they were treated respectfully at work. Thirdly, over two-fifths of respondents to a national survey on violence against women believed that women make sexual assault allegations to ‘get back’ at men.

This ingrained misogyny persists due to the ongoing persistence of patriarchy, which is aided by the shifting nature of inequality. As gains are made in some areas, progress on gender equality retreats in others. Patriarchy is aided by a continuing backlash against gender equality, which takes the form of gender fatigue, which is part of a backlash.

The Persistence of Patriarchy in the Workplace

Backlash is nothing new to the struggle for gender equality. Photo credit: Palczewski, Catherine H. Suffrage Postcard Image Gallery. University of Northern Iowa. Cedar Falls, IA

According to renowned feminist academic Sylvia Walby, patriarchy is ‘a system of social structures, and practices in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women’ (noting that this well-accepted definition is binary). It exists and is reinforced through cultural institutions, such as the media, is perpetuated by the state and also relies on male violence. It exists in social relations, sexual relations and is intertwined with capitalism, which relies, in part, on women’s unpaid labour to function. It exists in the modes of production and in paid work, and has adapted to changing capitalist systems.

Rather than ascribing ongoing gender inequality to patriarchy, however, women themselves are often blamed – a clever trick of a patriarchal system. This is endemic within workplaces, where approaches to progress gender equality are too often based on a ‘fix the woman’ approach, rather than implementing systemic changes. As Sara Ahmed argues, gender inequality does not appear to exist until the problems are pointed out – it is as if feminists themselves create the problems. Feminists, however, are required to ‘create’ these problems over and over. Every new generation of feminists are treated as aberrations – from early suffragists, to current activists. Women and feminist allies are forced to maintain gains and fight for new ones, whilst not becoming exhausted – ‘feminist fatigue’ is a reality.

Gains to achieve gender equality, have, nonetheless, been made. Reviewing a decade since the introduction of the Fair Work Act, my colleagues and I have found that some progress has been made, however, gains have been frustratingly slow. Women’s labour force participation continues to increase, but women predominate in lower paid work in the services sector. Close to one in two jobs held by women are part-time, and mature aged women in particular are underemployed. The gender pay gap stubbornly hovers at around 15 per cent. In 2015-16, women’s superannuation balances averaged $68,000 – less than two-thirds of average male balances. Gains made in gender equality are made slowly, and are fragile. One of the main ways detractors seek to curtail gender equality is through gender fatigue and backlash.

Gender Fatigue and Backlash

A simple form of gender fatigue occurs when people are tired of hearing about gender equality; of feeling they are required to constantly be ‘politically correct’. Gender fatigue results in decreased opportunities for individuals, such as lack of access to mentoring. This is not helped by some men saying that they are too ‘afraid’ to mentor women, as North American survey results have shown. Additionally, some men are reportedly not meeting female colleagues alone. This positions men as victims, as being vulnerable and at risk, which effectively appropriates women’s voices and fears and reinforces male privilege. This is another way patriarchy reproduces itself in the workplace.

My colleagues (Linda Colley, Meraiah Foley and Rae Cooper) and I have encountered evidence of gender fatigue, based on speaking with almost 300 middle managers. While managers were overwhelmingly committed to gender equality, many gave comments such as ‘gender has been done’ or ‘gender is not an issue here’. Many participants were committed to the idea of organisational gender equality, however, were rather tired of hearing about such issues. Their fatigue stemmed not only from hearing the same organisational messages, but also because they did not know how to make progress.

Moving from the passive resistance of gender fatigue to the more active resistance of male backlash moves us to the other end of the resistance spectrum. Twenty-eight years ago, Susan Faludi created a furore by documenting the backlash against women. She noted that backlash is not new, as evidenced by penalties imposed on childless and unwed women in ancient Rome, and the witch burnings of medieval Europe. These occasions occurred in response to perceptions that women were gaining a form of equality. The backlash this time around is taking the form of a resurgence of the men’s rights movement, and also in the cries of ‘#notallmen’. This is a direct response to the ‘#MeToo’ movement.

At the organisational level, resistance and the resurgence of backlash takes the form of verbal attacks to gender equality initiatives. Even in organisations where managers and employees may be committed to the idea of fairness and equality, backlash can manifest as resistance to the implementation of gender equality programs because of fear, and a sense of threat to male privilege. Organisational silence or inaction on gender equality is an insidious form of backlash. While human resource professionals and feminist activists work to overcome gender fatigue and backlash, it is crucial to determine exactly what is being sought.

Visions of a Gender Equitable Workplace and How to Get There

Feminist researchers and their allies have amply documented the various approaches to achieving workplace gender equality. Male backlash can be ignored; men can be co-opted through having their concerns addressed; and men can be educated about backlash, privilege and discrimination. Gender fatigue can be addressed through reinvigorating conversations about gender equality. Other initiatives to progress workplace gender equality include sharing stories, leadership and role modelling, and explaining the business case.

Transformation to achieve workplace gender equality requires structural change, rather than a focus on the individual. This involves not only implementing gender equality policies and changing human resource processes to uncover and rectify sex discrimination, but also changing informal work practices and interactions between men and women. Reconfiguring the narratives, rhetoric, language, and other symbolic expressions which renew gendered ways of thinking and working is also part of the change process needed.

Such an approach may result in see non-hierarchical organisational structures, removed from traditional concepts of power, seniority and other masculinist trappings. Addressing the way work is allocated and valued will also redo the gender order in organisations. The conception of ‘work’ might be subverted so that it is not the guiding force of our lives, so we really do work to live, not live to work, and the concept of a ‘full-time’ job is considered an anachronism. However, it is a rare organisation which is willing to travel down a transformational path. Radical or transformational approaches are unattractive to organisations, which may be risk averse.

To counter such organisational resistance, researchers recommend that organisations adopt short and long-term agendas, to achieve small, immediate wins, whilst deeper transformations occur. Creative experiments using bias interrupters, as advocated by Joan Williams and Iris Bohnet, can result in behavioural, and organisational change. An example of this is a manager taking note of who conducts the ‘office housework’, then ensuring these tasks are undertaken by all, and not just women. These interventions and bias interrupters equate to a series of small wins, which can resound throughout an organisation and have a cumulative effect.

Conclusions

This short article has considered the resurgence of feminism and the continuation of patriarchy in the forms of a male backlash and gender fatigue. While backlash is an obvious form of resistance to the progression of gender equality, gender fatigue is much more insidious, and arguably, more difficult to address. Just as patriarchy is permeable and ever-changing, so is gender fatigue. Researchers have envisaged what a gender equitable workplace might look like, and how to get there through short and long-term gains to transform workplaces. Opportunities exist for organisations to be creative in re-imagining gender equitable workplaces, and how this might be achieved.

Note: This is an edited version of an article recently published in Labour & Industry, which is available here.

This post is part of the Women's Policy Action Tank initiative to analyse government policy using a gendered lens. View our other policy analysis pieces here and follow us on Twitter @PolicyforWomen

Backlash, Gender Fatigue and Organisational Change