Voices: Mark Zuckerberg is right – what the world needs is more ‘masculine energy’
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In a world where violence against women and girls is rife and the gender pay gap is still very much a thing, writes Emma Clarke – why not add more toxic masculinity to the mix?. You know what? Throughout my career, one of the things that has struck me the most is the lack of masculine energy.
Looking past the sea of ugly ergonomic chairs, how often the women’s toilets are situated on an entirely different floor and the fact that the majority of senior managers have been men… also forgetting the time I was actually shushed by a male colleague while presenting my strategy to a room full of other male colleagues – oh, and when one male boss decided to put a wager on with my male colleagues to see who could bed me first (spoiler: none)… the places I’ve worked, particularly when I was starting out, positively reeked of femininity.
Proposals to improve maternity and paternity leave? Requests to provide mental health services to workers? Sanitiser on the desks during Covid? Not making inappropriate jokes about colleagues’ attire, sex life and/or physical appearance? Getting work done to a high standard without reducing colleagues to tears and burnout? Who could thrive in such an environment….
I am, of course, being sarcastic. But according to Mark Zuckerberg, masculine energy is exactly what’s missing from the corporate world – this coming from the man who invented Facebook purely to rate female university students and check their relationship status. He is also, lest we forget, the guy who hunts “invasive pigs” in Hawaii – and is partial to mixed martial arts (MMA).
