Why Mark Zuckerberg is wrong about ‘masculine energy’ – according to a man who’s worked in an all-female office

I am a person who has solely labored in female-dominated areas. All of my bosses have been girls, and I’ve both been the one man within the room or one among two as I navigated a profession beginning as a trend assistant at a significant trend journal, all the way in which to being the Leisure Director at GLAMOUR UK. And in the present day, as I host my very own podcast, Reign with Josh Smith – the place a overwhelming majority of my visitors are high-profile girls from Jodie Foster to Florence Pugh – my complete workforce is made up of girls (and one man – who’s nice, BTW).

I actually didn’t realise how a lot of a privilege this was till very early into my profession, after I heard of the experiences of my feminine buddies who had been working their method up the company ladder in workplaces stuffed with inappropriate feedback, behaviour and, properly… toxicity. My LGBTQIA+ pal’s experiences weren’t a lot totally different – some weren’t out at work attributable to concern, and one used to say completely nothing about his life exterior of labor, simply in case he unintentionally let it slip.

I used to be shocked, as my expertise of the office didn’t comprise any inappropriate jokes or ideas a few feminine colleague’s intercourse life or the way in which they dressed or performed themselves. Everybody was in a position to be clear about themselves and their lives. And on this atmosphere, nobody tried to undertake ‘masculine’ behaviours like being assertive, speaking over folks, or manspreading to get forward. These sorts of behaviours had been ineffective, disregarded and of zero value.

Girls had been welcomed again and celebrated for making private life selections, from having infants to getting married, and made to really feel these selections wouldn’t maintain them again in any method. As an alternative, the atmosphere was fully versatile round them. Why? This summed up all the things female-dominated workplaces had been about: supportive, encouraging, and pushing you to be the very best model of your self simply as you had been. Everybody might thrive of their jobs and lives exterior of their jobs, and discussions about wellbeing and psychological well being had been welcomed.

Like in any work atmosphere or relationship, issues in fact might fray, however the general vitality was about inclusion, not exclusion. As somebody who was bullied at college largely by boys and even by male lecturers who made inappropriate homophobic feedback, to now coping with hate on-line – each single one of many homophobic feedback I get comes from a person – this atmosphere was a haven for me.