Men wanted for a good cause
Ever since our group’s beginnings, we’ve grappled with what we think is an important question: “How do we include men?” Because, fundamentally, all of us believe that the issues we face are not exclusively WOMEN’S ISSUES. We think of them more as issues that, despite living in more egalitarian times, still seem to affect women more than men. But we needed a name, and we WERE all women. The “Work-Life-Family Balance Issues” group wasn’t so catchy, though WLFBI does sound a bit like a radio station. Has our name done us in? I hope not. We haven’t had a ton of events yet, but men have been explicitly invited to all of them. I hope some time they DO come, because we need them on board with these issues. We need them, because as of now, they are usually more than half of the culture-setters, the policy-makers, and the policy-enacters. We need them because these issues are important for them, even if they aren’t caretakers. They are issues that could affect their spouses, their children, and their colleagues.
Do we scare them off? Any of you men out there? Some thoughts? I promise we don’t bite . . .
It’s always an uphill to get men involved in something like this, not just for the names of groups. Getting men to come seems like it shouldn’t be something left to the people in charge – if a woman comes to a meeting with a kid, tell her to bring her husband, if applicable. What you’re setting up would change his life a lot too.
I think that’s the big angle to play up – every guy in the world would be impacted by a more egalitarian system.
On the other hand, if male grad students are too stupid to see this is something important to them, what else can you do if you’ve been making a case for it?