M
ark Freed, managing director of Men for Inclusion, was the keynote speaker and discussed effective
ways to transform workplaces into truly diverse environments. Delegates were drawn from the
world of finance, global mobility, global education, academia, coaching and facilitating, and industry. Attendees came away with actionable strategies to introduce change into their workplace and look at inclusivity in a different light, thanks to Mark Freed’s discussion on equality at work. His speech highlighted how, despite
companies investing time, energy and resources into diversity, equity and inclusion programmes, progress towards a more equitable workplace appears to have stalled. In his role as consultant to major companies in the finance, energy and other industries, he has identified the reasons for this. Firstly, unless an organisation changes its culture, change will be slow. Secondly, some men are resistant to change and feel disengaged from or even threatened by DE&I initiatives, and finally, creating an organisation that is truly inclusive means that all voices need to be heard.
BREAKING THE MOULD: MARK FREED CHAMPIONS SYSTEMIC CHANGE & “INCLUSION ALLIES”
Mark Freed kick-started the day with a thought-provoking talk on why progress in gender equality in the workplace has been slow for women and unsatisfactory for men. Mark has spent twenty-five years supporting women through coaching and driving systemic change. He collaborated with HM Treasury on the Women in Finance Charter and addressed the presenter pay gap. Frustrated by the slow progress, Mark shifted his focus and co-founded Men for Inclusion to foster collaboration and find solutions. “This year’s theme for
International Women’s Day is accelerating action,” he said. “With the current state of the world, we need to seriously assess how far we have progressed in building gender equality. Are we still following the same old strategies, or is it time to try something new? I hope this session will spark new ideas and discussions.” Mark has first-hand experience
of how, despite great efforts, many traditional male-dominated industries fail to keep talented women who join them in the early stages of their career. Since 2002 he has been running E2W, an organisation that is focussed on
supporting and helping women in their financial services careers and helping financial institutions to attract, recruit and retain them. Men for Inclusion was launched to help more men in the majority groups to become true advocated for inclusion, driven by a strong belief that there are economic and social benefits in achieving lasting change. He suggested that although
many companies have robust Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) policies, real change and progress towards an inclusive culture is not happening because these values are not being modelled by senior leadership and are not being embedded effectively across the organisation. He argued that men were also trapped by persistent stereotypes and that organisations that were not diverse had a higher risk profile.
WHY HAS PROGRESS BEEN SLOW & PIECEMEAL IN DE&I? “Progress towards true diversity and inclusion has been slow, and in some cases even gone backwards,” Mark told delegates. He said that often, discussions about gender are framed in binary terms of men and women, with women needed
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GLOBAL LEADERSHIP
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