Headlines about workplace sexism regularly bring us men sharing social media posts and retweets with hashtags like #GenderEquality. Yet, many of their female colleagues read those posts and think, “That guy? An ally? Really?”
The skepticism may be deserved. I study allyship—the idea of someone from an advantaged group supporting the professional and personal well-being of someone who is typically marginalized in society, such as women or people of color. Despite widespread beliefs that gender bias is not really a problem or that supporting women in their workplaces goes against men’s own self-interests, more men are starting to express an interest in being allies; in recent research from my group, 76 percent, or 1,342 of 1,751 participants, said that they wanted to be allies for underrepresented and marginalized people in their organization. But new research has questioned whether that interest is largely performative, mirroring the skepticism that women often express.
Understanding whether men think of themselves as allies is important because allies are uniquely positioned to support equality. For instance, when male allies step up against sexism, their message that women are equal to men often gains more attention and is better received by people harboring sexist beliefs than when women themselves speak up against sexism. Consequently, when male allies call out sexism, bystanders are more likely to speak up in support of the victim and expect leaders to hold those behaving in sexist ways accountable for their actions.
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