Messengers Matter: Why Advancing Gender Equity Requires Male Allies

Abstract

impact. Thismust include both women andmen in the discipline. Men, in fact, may have a unique role to play. Our research suggests that some men will avoid hearing messages from women advocating for gender equity. However, these same men are open to that message when it is delivered by a man. For this reason, one of the most important contributions that men can make to advance gender equity is to confront discrimination and champion messages about gender equity with other men. Although this strategy has limitations, we believe it has important practical benefits, especially in areas of the discipline in which women are few in number. Allies are particularly important in the fight against sexism because many factors can make it difficult for targets of discrimination to directly address its effects. In some cases, gender discrimination can happen in rooms without women present. Even when discrimination happens in clear view, its targets must contend with the fact that claims of discrimination often are met with doubt, denigration, and even retaliation (Czopp and Monteith 2003; Dodd et al. 2001; Fitzgerald, Swan, and Fischer 1995; Kaiser and Miller 2001; Rasinski and Czopp 2010). These dynamics provide not only a challenge for rooting out discrimination but also an opportunity for allies. Research in social psychology and political science confirms that those who are not targets of discrimination often can be more successful when addressing it. In laboratory experiments, men who confront gender discrimination were more likely to change their behavior without facing backlash (Dodd et al. 2001). Similarly, Munger (2017) found that high-status whites were most successfully able to reduce racist expressions in online spaces. Both strains of research demonstrate that allies have an ability to confront inequity without facing negative social costs. Furthermore, this work suggests that to oppose prejudice, discrimination, and inequity, we must change social norms around these issues and practices. Even in the absence of overt discrimination, men can be allies in the fight for gender equity. Our research used a choice-based experimental design that allowed respondents to either choose to listen to a woman’s perspective on the #MeToo movement or to avoid that content (Testa et al. forthcoming). Among those who avoided the message, we used a second round of randomization to assess how those who avoided the message from a woman reacted to that same message when provided by a different woman or a man.1 Our results suggest two potential reactions to these messages among the avoiders. When those who would prefer not to hear the message about #MeToo from a woman were forced to hear a message from a woman, there was a backlash effect. The message, when delivered by a woman, provoked a more negative response toward the movement, particularly among male respondents. When these respondents received the same message from a man, however, it made them