this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2023
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this is true though
They are needed in society, sure, but is he saying these men are needed to lead women in matters of gender equality?
Because that's the thing about this that's raising eyebrows.
I mean, if genders are equal then an equal number of men and women should be leading in matters of gender equality.
And there are real issues that stem from this. If you make it so that under-represented people always lead initiatives to improve representation, you are adding workload to the under-represented people involved in the <activity> (governance in this case), and making them even more under-represented in the rest of the activity.
The optics in this case are bad enough that the downsides of sending a candidate chosen in a gender-neutral fashion outweigh the upsides, but I'd definitely advise being cautious about assuming that's always the case. If anything it's the exception, not the rule.
This was a meeting on women's empowerment.
And where do you think a woman has more power? In a meeting on women's empowerment, or a meeting on... I don't know... how many weapons to give to Ukraine?
If you pull women away from the latter to send them to the former that is negatively impacting women's empowerment.
Like I said, the optics in this case make it worth it anyways, but it is not a clear cut rule where that is always the case, and it's easy to do it too often.
I'm struggling to understand why you think these specific women (and man) who are leaders on social empowerment are also going to be military logistics experts who are being pulled away from that field.
Rather I think they're diplomats in senior government rolls, because they're at the G7. In US terms think state department, not DOD.
Regardless the exact nature of the other meeting isn't the point. The general fact that DEI work is usually not the most impactful work you can be doing in terms of personal development and growth in the organization is, so saying that under-represented people need to lead it harms under-represented people.
I don't really understand US terms, but the man concerned is a Cabinet Minister, not a diplomat.
(A cabinit minister is the equivalent of if you had a high-up Senator who was in charge of overseeing policy in a sector, I guess).
So it's very much an elected leadership role.
Historically when we have had members of a majority in charge of Government portfolios/policy sectors that mainly affect minorities, I don't think you can credibly argue that was somehow "better for" under-represented people than being able to participate directly in leadership roles themselves.
Deciding which policies will benefit women in leadership roles is arguably of more direct benefit to the lived realities of women, than helping decide where/how to help arm soldiers in a war somewhere else in the world.
There's enough women out there that sending one as a delegate to a women's empowerment conference is not going to require pulling one out of a meeting about Ukraine armaments.
There's actually a lot of women around. So, so many. It's actually a little intimidating just how many women there are.