Media

Collaborating with Men – Transforming Workplace Culture Together

07 Mar 2017

 

The Women’s Studies Research Centre of the University of Hong Kong will hold an event “Collaborating with Men” on March 8 (Wednesday) to celebrate International Women’s Day.

The event will feature Dame Barbara Stocking, President of Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge and former Chief Executive of Oxfam GB, who will be giving a lecture about new research from the University of Cambridge into the behaviours and perceptions of men regarding women’s workplace experiences. The details are as follows:

Date: March 8, 2017 (Wednesday)
Time: 4 to 6pm
Location: 11/F, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, Centennial Campus, University of Hong Kong
Format: Lecture followed by panel discussion and open forum Q&A with audience

Entitled “Collaborating with Men”, the research was prompted by a survey among Murray Edwards alumnae which found that women felt workplace culture was inhibiting their career progress. Looking into existing research, Dr Jill Armstrong, research associate at Murray Edwards College, found that the debate focused on women’s perceptions of the challenges they face - with very little written about men’s view of the workplace culture problems that women describe.

• Do men see the problems women report?
• What they can personally do to help change the workplace?
• What support do they need from leaders?

Believing that gender equality is only going to be solved by men and women working together, Dr Armstrong decided to change this and interviewed 40 men in early career, middle management and senior management roles in SMEs and large organisations, across public and private sectors, about their perceptions of women’s workplace experiences. A collaborative conference in which men and women worked together on ideas about what individual men could do to change workplace culture was held at Cambridge. The recommendations emerging from this work include:

• Changing the way meetings are run; chair training for those running meetings.
• Not being a bystander:  amplifying what women say and crediting their ideas to them.
• Holding networking events during office hours, to be inclusive.
• Setting up reverse mentoring:  early career women paired with senior men.

The recommendations are now being discussed with a number of organisations, including Baker McKenzie and Barclays Hong Kong, who are keen to make workplaces more inclusive.

Dame Barbara Stocking’s presentation will be followed by a panel of HeForShe Male Impact Champions comprising President Peter Mathieson of the University of Hong Kong, the first University in the world to commit to the HeForShe initiative and five men from Corporate Impact Champion for HeForShe Barclays Women’s Initiatives Network. They will share their experiences as male allies for gender equality inside and outside the workplace. The panel will be moderated by Dame Barbara Stocking.

For media enquiries, please contact Ms Melanie Wan, Senior Manager (Media), Communications and Public Affairs Office, HKU (tel: 2859 2600 email: melwkwan@hku.hk).