Men Take the Floor

The slogan 'Nothing About Us Without Us' - which Wikipedia helpfully informs me is 'Nihil de nobis, sine nobis' in Latin - is important because so many decisions that govern certain people's lives are made without their consent or their sometimes vital input. For instance it is rare a sex worker is asked about their safety and profession, instead we hear from columnists who are squeamish about the sex trade or sceptical about the adults who choose to enter it. Whilst it is occasionally understandable, for instance there are few incidents in which 4 year old children are consulted for good reason, it was surprising to see an image from the Global Summit of Women with only men on the stage. 

---

Quebecois commentator Marie-Andree Paquet posted the photo on Twitter. It featured six middle aged, white, male CEOs sitting on a stage in front of a backdrop that said 'Sommet Mondial des Femmes  2014, Paris France'. We are used to seeing men on a conference stage, just not usually so many on a stage that is supposed to be for a summit about women, so it was odd that there was pas de femme, beucoup de homme.

Paquet captioned her photo with "Une image vaut mille mots, disent-ils" and the retweets flooded in, with people wondering why men seemed to be dominating a summit concerning women. It also kickstarted the fancy sounding term 'hommesplaining' which appeals to my love of franglais like homme fatale. 

So what is actually happening in this picture? The summit brought together 1000 women from over 80 countries to discuss how to improve women's economic opportunities across the world. Why were those men there? Well I suppose it is because white middle aged men have the best economic opportunities the world over and can probably impart some good advice on the subject. 

Amanda Hess reported in The Slate just what the men present at the summit were up to. "male CEOs in the fields of banking, energy, and law took to the stage to discuss how recruiting and fostering female talent can drive a company’s financial success." 

It is important to be aware that feminism is never supposed to be about...man vs woman.

Hess writes that one of the male participants,  Gianmarco Monsellato, is very active in promoting gender equality by encouraging powerful men to be a part of the cause. "Monsellato believes that endorsing Lean In-style correctives, which focus on female employees’ own behavior at the expense of male leaders’ actions, and diversity initiatives, which ask women talk among themselves and present their findings to male leadership, will never succeed until powerful men are pressured to take up the cause themselves. In other words, this all-male panel is great."

In response to the feminist Twitter reception to the photo of an all male panel at the event Hess says "The outrage that swiftly coalesced around the photo is typical of a kind of quick-take feminism that has just enough time to count the bodies and plug them into the reality of male global domination". 

It is important to be aware that feminism is never supposed to be about, or reduced to, man vs woman. It is also important to note that feminism is about providing women a platform and space. It is understandable that at a glance people might be annoyed to see men giving their answers and opinions on women's issues, however when men want to be active in gaining equality for women we need to be able to come together on the same terms. 

Because that's pretty much equality, non?  

Squeamish Kate