Dear Inma,
From past personal experience, I was a founder member of the Association of Women Entrepreneurs - a group which gave a forum for very open and frank discussions about issues that were facing women commercialising their research out of a University base in Scotland. We frequently had male guests as speakers, to lead our workshops and as after dinner speakers however when we opened up our meetings to male entrepreneurs we completely changed the dynamic of our group - we lost a lot of our female members, and many became more reluctant to discuss their challenges and problems.
I think it works opening up a meeting to male participants when you have a specific topic that you want a male perspective - I think that possibly in the conference situations or where you have specific forums. I recall from my own Aurora experience that we had a real spectrum of women participating, many were true strong leaders and very confident women but equally there were many who were exploring areas which were taking them out of their comfort zones and by participating in an open discussion were making themselves quite vulnerable - Aurora is a great forum as it provides a safe environment to explore your thoughts, beliefs, feelings, even your insecurities - which is all part of what makes us recognise what we need to work on and lets us grow.
There is a place for a mixed forum, but it placing in the Aurora programme may make the difference of such an exercise working (or not).
Kind regards
Alison
Dr Alison Reith
Business Development Officer,
West of Scotland KTP Centre
Room 202, 50 George Street, Glasgow G1 1QE
Direct Line: 0141 548 2476
Facilitating Knowledge Transfer Partnerships for Higher and Further Education in the West of Scotland
Visit our website www.ktpws.org.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: Leadership Foundation Aurora Programme [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Inma.Alvarez
Sent: 25 July 2017 10:39
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Involving men
Dear all
I would appreciate any comments/ views on the extent to which we should be engaging men in our discussions on equality and progression at the workplace.
When I did the Aurora programme a couple of years ago, the message was that it was good to work on equality together with men, for instance we could engage them as mentors, although they were not invited to the Aurora events.
There is a question of how we should engage men, and how we ensure that women have real opportunities to lead and set the agenda as well.
Is any of you aware of any research studies that indicate the best approaches to HOW or WHEN to engage men in the discussions?
Thanks
Inma
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