Manbassadors Track
Chris Vega is a Copywriter at BBDO. He is also the founder of The Concepting Class, a program that helps diverse creatives break into the advertising industry. In his free time, he produces music and is a decent person.
Track Recap by Chris Vega
The future of gender equality will be decided by men for one simple reason: If it were up to women, it would already exist. While women will always be at the forefront of this movement, men are in the position of power. In order for there to be real change, men have to choose to make equality a reality. By focusing on men in the 2015 “Manbassadors” session, The 3% Conference began an important conversation that needed to take place at a business conference about the importance of diversity to creativity. This year, The 3% Conference built on what it started by introducing a Manbassadors track, sponsored by IPG, made up of six sessions focused on what men can do for gender equality. Here are the key takeaways from each session.
Session 1: But First, a Word from a Woman
Cindy Gallop’s message to the male leaders of the industry is this: Would you like to do less work and make more money? The moment you have 50% or more women on your board, on your leadership team, in your creative team, and at the head of your creative department, you’ll instantly make more money and do less work, because innovation, disruption, and creativity are the result of diversity. Women get shit done. Women don’t self promote. Women don’t want to take credit, which is why they don’t get it. When you hire women, and put them in leadership positions, they do all the work for you. Speaker: Cindy Gallop, Founder, MakeLoveNotPorn, IfWeRanTheWorld.
Appropriately enough, the Manbassador track opened with Cindy Gallop—easily one of the most exciting speakers from the entire conference.
Cindy Gallop’s presentation focused on seven actions men should take for a better future for both men and women:
1. Hire and promote women into senior positions to make your life easier instantly.
A perfect example of this can be seen in the way Fortune described the relationship between Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg: “She does all the things he doesn’t want to do, so he can focus on what he likes.”
2. Hire and promote women based on potential.
Men are hired and promoted on potential. Women are hired and promoted on proof. The easiest way to fix this is to hire women on potential and hire men on proof.
3. When hiring, ask to see women and people of color with the potential to do the job.
This was highlighted by a story about an employer who was looking to hire for a job, but was only being brought white men to interview. When that employer asked the recruiter if there were any diverse candidates, the recruiter said that they had exhausted their network and couldn’t find any diverse people appropriate for the job. This ended with the recruiter getting fired.
4. Equalize pay.
Equalize the pay of women doing great work to the men in the same positions. Then, watch the extraordinary jolt of productivity that comes from this equality. In order to make this point, the opposite was given as an option: If equalizing women’s pay to men is too much, then reduce the salaries of men to match the salaries of women and see how people react.
5. Don’t talk about diversity.
Talking about diversity doesn’t help. When you talk about diversity, you alienate straight white men. They can feel threatened and unsure about their position in their companies. Instead of just talking, we should do whatever we can to make a difference when it comes to diversity.
6. Communication through demonstration.
Write the creative brief for diversity and do what you do for your clients to solve this problem. If you believe in equality, apply your creative thinking to it.
7. Stop sexual harassment.
Stop doing it and stop other men doing it. Sexual harassment pushes women out of the industry and if nobody speaks up, nothing will change.
Above everything else, Cindy Gallop’s main point was that there is a huge amount of money to be made by taking women seriously.
Gallop also stressed that the majority of these actions apply to all diversity initiatives.
Session 2:The Future of Men
Author Jack Myers talks about what he foresees for the role of men in business and society in the next decade and beyond. In conversation with Beth Wade, CMO at VML.
The second session in the Manbassadors track was a conversation between Beth Wade and the author of The Future of Men, Jack Myers.
Myers opened the talk by summarizing the main points of his book which he calls “a book about men written for women.” The majority of what he had to say focused on the idea that the future of gender relationships is at a pivotal juncture. He underlined this by pointing out that when white men speak about gender equality or diversity, they often joke about how they themselves might not have a future. They feel like they might lose something through equality. Regardless of whether this is true or not, it’s a sentiment that Donald Trump seems to have taken advantage of in his race to the White House.
During their conversation, Beth Wade pointed out how gender equality seems to be more natural for younger people. Myers agreed but mentioned that, moving forward, we need to not only treat women as equals, but also show men and women as equals. A great example of this is entertainment or advertising that showcases men in nontraditional roles such as male nurses or stay-at-home dads.
The final point made during the conversation was that while objectifying women is obviously bad, moving in the opposite direction and demeaning men even in humorous ways can be counterproductive and cause defensiveness or opposition from men.
Key Takeaways:
- The future of gender relationships is at a pivotal juncture.
- For men to not fear gender equality, we have to make the case to them that the success of women does not come at the expense of men.
- Working with men, as opposed to working against them, is essential.
- Demeaning men, even in humorous ways, is counterproductive.
- To achieve gender equality, we need to show men and women as equals. Not that women are better or men are better.
Session 3: He’s Doing It
Hear from a panel of men who are spearheading efforts towards diversity that go beyond lip service and are generating real business results. Moderator: Sarah Watson, Global and NY CSO, BBH NY. Panelists: Matt Jarvis, Partner, 72andSunny; John Zissimos, Chief Creative Officer, Salesforce; Toby Southgate, Worldwide CEO, Brand Union; Tim Allen, President/North America, Wolff Olins.
This session focused on a panel of three men who are actually doing something about diversity at their companies. Each panelist spoke about how his agency strives for diversity and how he sees it positively affect business.
During the conversation, Spencer Deadrick noted that “When you’re in a leadership position at a company, there’s nothing wrong with saying that you can do better when it comes to diversity.” Toby Southgate echoed this statement simply stating that,
“Your company has to reflect the world.”
When asked by Sarah Watson what companies should be doing to achieve gender equality, John Zissimos offered that if you want more diversity, you have to extend the recruiting period or overhaul your recruitment process.
Overall, the session itself was a great example of what can happen when you take diversity and gender equality seriously as a man.
Key Takeaways:
- There’s nothing wrong with saying we can do better.
- Everything is better when there’s diversity.
- If you only have one type of perspective, your company doesn’t work from a business standpoint.
- More men have to be part of the solution when it comes to gender equality.
Session 4: The 97% Conference
How one (anonymous) man spoofed The 3% through a brilliant and biting Twitter account that made headlines in Adweek. He’ll unmask his identity + share how his humor uncovers difficult truths that admen everywhere need to confront. Speaker: John Kovacevich, Founder, The 97% Conference.
In case you’re not familiar, here are a couple examples of what The 97% Conference has had to say on Twitter:
On top of highlighting some of the tweets he made on behalf of the fake conference, Kovacevich spoke about how the misogyny in advertising motivated him to create the Twitter account and how he hopes humor can help gender equality. He made the case that there is a role for humor in advocating for change by stating that,
“In any cause, if all you’re doing is lecturing people, it will be hard to convert people and change people’s mind.”
By the end of the session, it was hard to disagree.
Key Takeaways:
- People who are afraid of diversity are afraid of scarcity. They’re afraid that if a woman gets a job, then there’s one less job for men.
- There is a role for humor in advocating for change.
- Sometimes absurdity requires an absurd response.
Session 5: Why Men Should Mentor Women
Captain David Smith, PhD and Brad Johnson, PhD of the U.S. Naval Academy share research from their new book Athena Rising, a straightforward, no-nonsense manual for helping men to become excellent mentors to women. Women face more barriers in securing mentorships than men, and when they do find a mentor, they may reap a narrower range of both career and psychological benefits. Men need to fully appreciate just how crucial their support of promising junior women can be in helping them to persist, promote, and thrive in their vocations and organizations. Speakers: W. Brad Johnson, Ph.D, Professor of Psychology, Author; David Smith, PhD, Associate Professor of Sociology, Author. Sponsored by Interpublic Group.
Having a great mentor is one of the most important aspects of almost every successful person’s career. Fortunately, Brad Johnson and David Smith have done a great deal of research and writing on mentorship and how it intersects with gender equality – a lot of which can be read in their new book, Athena Rising.
Throughout their presentation, Smith and Johnson talked about the reasons men need to mentor women, how to avoid being a bad mentor to women, and the issues women face in male-dominated industries. An issue that was discussed in detail was the way men and women approach job interviews for promotions. Men often show bravado in these situations by touting their readiness for jobs that they may or may not be qualified for, whereas women tend to be more conservative or realistic about their readiness for the same type of jobs.
The session also covered the differences in the way men and women communicate, including how men are often quick to try to find solutions when women simply want someone to listen to them. One of the most obvious but insightful comments from the presentation was that men have to mentor women simply because there are not enough women to mentor women.
Key Takeaways:
- Implicit bias research shows that everyone has pre-existing prejudices towards women.
- Men often show bravado in situations where women might be more unsure or realistic.
- Due to a masculine standard of leadership, women are often perceived as too soft or too tough, but never just right.
- You don’t have to call yourself a mentor in order to mentor women.
- Men have to mentor women because there are simply not enough women to mentor women.
Session 6: How Gender Equal Are Your Social Networks?
It really is who you know. And if you know 80% men, as most men do, chances are you hire, recommend and amplify mostly men and their messages. Hear how one man challenged his own Friend Lists to a diversity duel. Speaker: Matt Anderson, CEO, Struck.
For the final session of the Manbassadors track, Matt Anderson took us through his quest to find out how gender equal his social networks were.
His initial analysis of his social networks was inspired by Rick Klau’s admission that 80% of his contacts were men. This got Anderson thinking about his own address book, which lead to him tallying the people he followed on Twitter – about 70% men. So, he decided to find out why.
What he found was that he rarely followed anybody who was dissimilar to himself. In addition, the recommendations for people to follow on his social networks tended to also be overwhelmingly male. He also made the point that the echo chamber of social media and the algorithms that govern it make it easy to only hear from people very similar to you.
Anderson finished his presentation by asking us all to friend and follow people who are different from ourselves.
Key Takeaways:
- Ask yourself: What is the breakdown of your friends and the people you follow on social media?
- Social media puts us in echo chambers where we only see and hear from people very similar to us.
- If you want a more diverse outlook on life, take these four steps for more diverse social networks:
*Find the dissimilar.
* Follow the dissimilar.
* Listen to the dissimilar.
* Embrace the dissimilar.
Wrapping Up the Track
Diversity requires those in positions of power to work for the cause. With that in mind, the Manbassadors track did a great job of highlighting what men should be doing to help end gender inequality. In fact, it seemed like the white men in the Manbassadors sessions were, at times, more vocal about diversity as a whole than almost anyone else at the conference. This is great because this track might be one of the most important aspects of the 3% Conference going forward.
It has the potential to be the best place to send the most powerful men in the industry and recruit them for the cause of diversity.
The audience it focuses on can enact change and champion diversity in a unique way. If these sessions are any indication, the future of equality already has many allies. All that’s left is to grow this audience.