But Men May Need Help - Building Gender Balanced Business

• The dust has yet to settle over a University of Chicago student’s effort to create a group called Men in Power to “promote understanding of issues and challenges facing men today.”

• Is such a group needed? The Atlanta Journal Constitution columnists Andrea Sarvady and Shaunti Feldhahn face off in a shared column to argue the effort’s merits and demerits.

• Sarvady fully recognises the need for men’s support groups in many situations but maintains that the Chicago effort was mainly about “learning from men in powerful positions” and “reverse sexism”. There’s no need for that, she argues.

• After all, men start outearning women pretty much right out of college, and their earnings are well above those of men across industries and ages. As for men in powerful positions, they vastly outnumber women — just look at the Fortune 500.

• “[T]he professional world still has a long way to go before being male puts you at a disadvantage and in need of special coaching and networking avenues.”

• Feldhahn, author of “For Women Only: What You Need to Know About the Inner Lives of Men”, argues that the very attacks on the group show how necessary one is. “Society’s focus on women’s needs has somehow made it unacceptable to focus on men. But this is not a zero-sum game, and we must fully encourage both.”

• She also notes that the very women upset about the group should remember that their sons are entering “a world that no longer understands their unique wiring or needs, nor intends to do much about it.”.

• “If we don’t bring awareness and encouragement to men’s issues, we not only hurt our husbands and sons, but also ultimately ourselves.”

The column