60% of male employees are uncomfortable working with female colleagues: Study

#MeToo movement surely encouraged women to speak up about harassment at the workplace and raised awareness on this issue, but it seems this empowering movement also led to a few not-so-positive consequences. A recent study has pointed out that male leaders are uncomfortable interacting with female colleagues at work, including a one-on-one meeting. Is this a new threat to the career of professional women? Here’s what the findings of this research suggest…

In a study done by SurveyMonkey (a survey platform) for LeanIn.org, a non-profit founded by Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg to support working females, the researchers interviewed more than 5,000 working professional and concluded that 60 per cent male managers hesitate to interact with women at workplace. This includes mentoring, socialising, and one-on-one meetings.

The same study was done last year as well and 34 per cent male managers admitted to being uncomfortable in socialising with their female colleagues outside the workplace. Shockingly, the number has hiked to 48 per cent this year.

The research points out that 34 per cent males, about a third of the participants, have intentionally started ignoring women employees outside work and are more unwilling to have a one-on-one meeting outside office and travel with them for official purpose.

About 36 per cent of men revealed that they avoided mentoring or socialising with female employees thinking ‘how would it look’.

Going by the statistics, male employees at senior-level positions are 12 times more likely to be uncomfortable in having a one-on-one meeting with a junior female colleague in comparison to a male colleague. Not just this, they are nine times more likely to be hesitant to travel and six times more likely to be uncomfortable to have a work dinner with a female colleague than a male colleague.

Sheryl Sandberg has called these findings ‘totally unacceptable’ and pointed out that women never had the same opportunities as men in the corporate world. Female employees were already not getting the same mentorship as men and opined that no employee gets promoted at work without having a one-on-one meeting.

Definitely, ignoring women at workplace and denying them fair and equal opportunities is not a solution to the problem. Sheryl opines that the #MeToo movement had a positive impact on workplaces, especially against sexual harassment. Rachel Thomas, president of LeanIn.org along with Sheryl believes that the leadership structure needs to be changed in organisations across the world. The leadership positions should have more females, LGBTQ people and those of ‘colour’.

(All images used here are representational)