Male Bashing and Gender Stereotyping in the Media
While The Washington Post informs its readers about “What men can learn from women about leadership in the 21st century”, the International Herald Tribune published a special report about “German women boxed out of work”. With colourful pictures of traditional family models and detailed information about what goes wrong in Germany so that the share of women in executive commitees is only two percent, the report paints a quite unhelpful picture of the working situation for women in Germany. It is, for example, totally ignoring the tremendous efforts a lot of companies have already taken to increase the share of women in the corporate world. Of course, those have not had instant impact in year one or two, especially not on the highest management levels. Instead, quotes from CHROs, feminist activist Alice Schwarzer and Labour Minister Ursula von der Leyen about fundamental resistance to change seem to suggest that quotas are the only means left in a totally hopeless situation. Some of the facts and figures, and many of the statements to explain the underrepresentation of women in management are doubtlessly true. It does not help to resolve the situation, however, when serious media provide strongly biased coverage in the one or other direction.
The second example of such single-minded approaches can be found in the Washington Post. The paper hightlights why women nowadays are “better leaders”. Presenting empirical evidence about (stereotypical) male and female qualities certainly won’t facilitate a constructive discussion, which is now more needed than ever before. Instead, defensive attitudes and behaviour with male managers are encouraged, making the lives of diversity practitioners a little more difficult.
