Fair Share: Why gender equality at work is everyone's job, with Brad Johnson and David Smith

Written By Emma Thomas

Middling Along is back after a longer-than-usual summer break, and we're returning with two guests who've spent nearly 15 years asking one question: what happens when men become part of the conversation on gender fairness at work, instead of standing outside it?

Brad Johnson is Professor Emeritus of Leadership, Ethics and Law at the US Naval Academy. David Smith is co-director of the Gender and Work Initiative at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. Their new book, Fair Share: How Men and Women Can Create a More Equitable Workplace Together, is their third together, following Athena Rising and Good Guys. It moves on from individual allyship to the harder question of how to fix the systems that keep producing the same inequities.

This conversation is refreshingly blunt about what isn't working, and practical about what to do instead.

In this episode:

  • Why the workplace is broken for men too. Workplaces built for our grandfathers still assume women are natural carers and men are natural breadwinners. That fails dual-career families, drives men towards burnout, and leaves women carrying the load at home.

  • The surprising brain benefit of hands-on fathering. Engaged caregiving is linked to greater neuroplasticity and lower dementia risk in dads.

  • Stop treating gender fairness as a "women's issue." If all the progress in your organisation depends on an unfunded women's network and one person in HR, leadership doesn't own it.

  • Beyond the cupcakes-and-balloons International Women's Day panel. What leaders who mean it actually do: they stay in the room, share their personal "why", commit to measurable actions, and are open about the targets they miss.

  • "Fix the system, not the women." The story of a leadership award winner sent on her fifth women's leadership course, only to return to a workplace that hadn't changed at all.

  • Caring beyond childcare. Why new eldercare and caregiver leave policies go unused, and how coaching before, during and after leave changes that. Plus the leadership skills carers develop, and why returners are an untapped talent pool.

  • The DEI retreat. Some organisations rebranded, a minority walked away entirely, and some are rediscovering their courage.

  • A striking statistic. In the US, the share of men out of the workforce to provide eldercare tripled last year.

  • Takeaways for home and work. A domestic audit with your partner that covers the mental load, not just the tasks. Role modelling from every level of management. And a challenge to men: be willing to downshift your career for a season so your partner can step up.

If you're a sandwich carer, a manager trying to get beyond the performative, or you want someone in your life to hear this, this is the episode to share.

Links

Emma Thomas https://www.thetripleshift.org
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Wild, Wiser, and Going For It with Kelly Keating - Middling Along