Taxi-Talks: The Masculinity Pit Stop

This week, we asked Paul the taxi driver to pose a question to his passengers: Is masculinity valued in the workplace?

Passengers saw masculinity as a non-issue in their workplaces. One outlier, who worked at a male-dominated career firm, acknowledged some challenges, but beyond that, it barely registered as a concern.

For those of us working in DEI, that’s a tough pill to swallow. We spend our days untangling power structures, cultural norms, and inequalities, many of which are deeply tied to masculinity and its impact. Whether it’s leadership expectations, gender pay gaps, or hiring biases, we regularly encounter scenarios that demonstrate workplace inequalities in favour of men. 

At the same time during the 2020s social media has seen the uprising of hyper-masculine figures who reinforce a vision of masculinity built on dominance and control. Take Andrew Tate, who preaches wealth, power, and submission as the hallmarks of manhood. In 2023, he was the third most Googled person in the world. The conflating of masculinity with misogyny and the uprising of groups like the red and black pills and incels are distinctly worrying.

And then there’s Mark Zuckerberg, who told Joe Rogan that corporate culture had become “culturally neutered” and needed more “masculine energy.” He even suggested that companies should “celebrate aggression a bit more.” Unsurprisingly, to the criticism of many. 

So Where Does That Leave Us?

Our taxi conversations suggest that, for Paul’s passengers, masculinity at work isn’t even a conversation in discussion and on a day-to-day basis given the litany of other worries, KPIs and other issues they likely deal with perhaps this makes sense. But could this actually indicate a blindspot?  

In this environment with misogynistic figures and rhetoric gaining popularity, the way we talk about masculinity matters more than ever - and bringing that conversation into the workplace is vital.