From #MeToo to #HeForShe, with Julie Kratz, Pivot Point

Julie Kratz is the author of One: How Male Allies Support Women for Gender Equality.

Our 24-hour news cycle is filled with thousands of short-lived moments: a school shooting; government corruption; crisis in the Middle East. Each headline crowds out the next. It can be hard to focus on one story for any period of time. But every now and then, a story sticks around. It breaks through the noise of the busy news cycle. A moment becomes a movement.

From the admission of a presidential candidate that he had groped women and gotten away with it, to the Women’s March last year, and gaining momentum with the Harvey Weinstein revelations, the #MeToo movement began. Women are organizing, speaking out and taking action.

It’s important to remember that #MeToo is about more than sexual harassment and sexual assault. It’s also about equal career opportunities and equal pay for equal work.

Men may want to help, but may not know where to begin. There’s a new book available that deals with just this question of how to be a male ally. It’s called One: How Male Allies Support Women for Gender Equality. It’s written by Julie Kratz, the founder of Pivot Point. She is a speaker, a trainer and author. This book was written after extensive interviews with successful women and male allies.

In this interview, Julie describes what an organization might look like if it achieved gender equality. She contrasts that with the current reality. Julie describes the consequences to organizations who do not maximize the talents of women. She provides indicators that organizations can look for to indicate whether or not they are achieving gender equality. She provides some positive examples of organizations who are getting gender equality right.

Julie also lays out four key strategies for being a successful male ally:

Channeling the women they empathize Asking for her HERstory Speaking up with her Doing the fair share

You can also read an explanation of each of these key areas on Julie’s blog here.

About Julie Kratz

Julie is a leadership trainer. She led teams in companies such as Caterpillar, Nationwide Insurance, and Adayana. After experiencing her own career “pivot point,” Julie developed a process to help women leaders create their winning career game plan.

Julie promotes gender equality in the workplace by helping women navigate their “what’s next” moments. Julie is a frequent keynote speaker and executive coach. Julie is also the author of Pivot Point: How to Build a Winning Career Game Plan.

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes from Julie Kratz

“An ally is somebody that is in it with you…side-by-side with you.”

“Ideally, you would look around the leadership table and see diversity.”

“When you have gender equality at the highest level of organizations, you have a much stronger profitability number.”

“McKinsey sites a 16% higher profitability rate with gender equality organizations.”

“It’s not a zero-sum game.”

“The statistics aren’t really changing.”

“What we’ve found is, it’s not blatant.”

“We’ve accepted that things are changing. It’s going to be a slow, gradual change. But, that’s actually not true. If we don’t do something now, it can actually get worse.”

“The world just has to be different for my daughters.”

“It’s not a line-item on your financials, which is why I think there is not a sense of urgency.”

“The power of the team is so much stronger, because all voices are heard.”

“80% of the buying decisions in our country are made by women.”

“Look around. Think about who is not here.”

“Women, on average, for the same work are paid 83% of what their male peers are paid.”

“There’s this unconscious bias, the subtle things we do every day with how we value women’s work.”

“When you say it’s a priority, your behaviors match that it’s a priority.”

“There are a lot of men in the middle that I call men on the fringe.”

“Men are better suited to call out bad behavior from other men.”

“You think about what has held women back, I don’t think we’ve been so good at including men in the dialog. We’re talking about 50% of the population.”

“Men need to feel included. They need to feel a part of this.”

“Strong women leaders engage these men in their careers.”

“Ask a woman what it’s like to be her.”

“People want to talk about it, but they don’t know how.”

“Think of one thing you can do to support this conversation.”

“We need men as allies.”

Social Entrepreneurship Resources: Book: One: How Male Allies Support Women for Gender Equality: http://amzn.to/2Ed1FMa Book: Pivot Point: How to Build a Winning Career Game Plan for Mid-Career Women: http://amzn.to/2lqHhOL Pivot Point: https://www.nextpivotpoint.com Pivot Point Podcast: https://www.nextpivotpoint.com/pivot-point-podcast Julie Kratz on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nextpivotpoint Pivot Point on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nextpivotpoint Julie Kratz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-kratz-06a015b McKinsey report, Women Matter: Ten years of insights on gender diversity: https://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/gender-equality/women-matter-ten-years-of-insights-on-gender-diversity Michael Kimmel’s TED talk, “Why gender equality is good for everyone – men included: https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_kimmel_why_gender_equality_is_good_for_everyone_men_included Book: Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives our Success: http://amzn.to/2Ec6KEn Book: Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World: http://amzn.to/2EbgyhR Book: Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy: http://amzn.to/2Dve6S3 Book: All In: How Our Work-First Culture Fails Dads, Families, and Business and How We Can Fix It Together: http://amzn.to/2DvwYQV HeForShe, sponsored by UN Women: http://www.heforshe.org Book: Crazy Good Advice: 10 Lessons Learned from 150 Leading Social Entrepreneurs: https://tonyloyd.com/book