Engaging Men in Gender Diversity

A study published by LEAD Network on Engaging Men in Gender Diversity, reveals some key insights from the C-Suite of Leading Retailers. This is a practical guide for businesses that wish to engage men in the mission of advancing gender diversity, outlining the key barriers to male engagement and highlighting possible actions to overcome them.

LEAD Retail Study 2017
Engaging Men in Gender Diversity: Perspectives from the C-Suite of Leading Retailers

What can be done to engage men more fully in the mission to create a better gender balance in retail organisations, particularly at the management level and above? That’s the question posed to senior retail executives in 2017, at the LEAD Retailer Roundtable. A new study was commissioned, exploring how to make the topic of gender diversity more relevant for men.

We interviewed 33 executives at the C-suite level from 14 European retailers, 8 of them female and 25 male. Our aim was to find out what the current situation is within their organisation regarding men’s involvement in the gender diversity question, and to discover what practices are most effective at motivating and engaging them. Findings from the study were shared at the 2017 LEAD conference in Amsterdam “Embracing Change: Transformation through Diversity”. The conclusions are presented in this LEAD publication, “Engaging Men in Gender Diversity: Perspectives from the C-Suite of Leading Retailers”.

The “Engaging Men in Gender Diversity” report covers the following topics:

  1. The value of gender diversity
  2. Is there a downside to gender diversity?
  3. Where does gender diversity rank on the corporate agenda?
    Has the ranking shifted over the past five years?
    – 3.1 External regulation and the question of quotas
    – 3.2 A new maturity model: Where is your company on the
    internalisation curve?
  4. To what extent are men involved in gender diversity initiatives?
    – 4.1 Rating levels of awareness and commitment
    – 4.2 Observations and recommendations
  5. Are there different ‘rules of the game’ for men and women?
  6. What are the barriers to male engagement and how can
    we overcome them?
    – 6.1 Examples of leading practice
    – 6.2 Case study: Costco’s Journeys initiative
    – 6.3 How to be a role model for gender diversity
    – 6.4 How to involve men in gender diversity
      Insights from Fleur Bothwick OBE
  7. Three principles to take away
    Conclusion and way forward

The results of the LEAD Retailer study are available to LEAD Partners only. For additional information about the study, contact Mick Broekhof, Secretary of the LEAD Network, at mick.broekhof@lead-eu.net