Talk nerdy to me! Aw yeah! let’s talk about what lies beneath… our nonprofit worlds! It’s not pretty down there.
Why am I talking about oppression and naming it?
Why not just keep talking about fundraising all the time? Because, man! Because:
- We say we want to make a better world, but we don’t look inside our organizations- so we reproduce systems of oppression, this leads to—
- Burnout, turnover, hypocrisy and the nonprofit industrial complex keeping us stuck, which leads to—
- Losing donors, losing funding, brittle structures and our obsolete organizations closing down!
So, if you want your org to get stronger, get more donors, and get more funding, it’s important to understand, name and claim what’s going on. And recognize your role, and do better.
Bottom line: Societal struggles are emblematic of our internal journeys.
You might say to your boss, “I’m learning about systemic analysis, and this will help us frame it so when people take responsibility for their behavior, they don’t take the blame for the entire system of oppression.”
SO! In the spirit of analyzing what’s REALLY going on, the NAME IT! Podcast this week talks all about Hegemonic Masculinity!
In it, we talk about masculinities and femininities at work! Because… this is part of the system that keeps us stuck! Interviewing Aaron Levine, who studied this for his Master’s thesis. First episode here if you want to catch up
Show 2: What is Hegemonic Masculinity, and Why Should You Care? Masculinities and Femininities in the Workplace
III. Connell’s masculinities and hegemonic masculinity
A. Connell’s theory of masculinities, asymmetric power difference between men and women. gender as performance is varied. Men are accepting or rejecting various factors of it. It’s a type of performance of masculinity,
B. Four kinds of masculinity outlined in the original theory
i. Hegemonic: the most acceptable use of “violence”, at the forefront of maintaining the gender structure in an environment
a) Domineering male is hegemonic performed.
ii. Subordinate: Least acceptable combination of qualities and behaviors, sometimes attributed feminine qualities
a) Some off-shoots of Connell’s theory put both men and women in the same performance of behaviors, with women occupying qualities and behaviors seen as subordinate to those of hegemonic masculinity
iii. Complicit: men who perform not accepting or at least not supporting fully the gender structure, while still benefiting from the domination of women
a) Your woke and “woke” male colleagues, even if they are supportive they still gain benefits from performing masculinity in the gender structure
iv. Marginalized: men that are “roped” into the gender structure even when their other qualities would put them in the minority (ethnicity, class, sexuality)
a) The black men in the glass escalator article
C. Types of femininity in the gender structure
i. Emphasized femininity: the female qualities hegemonic masculinity deems most acceptable
a) Pliant, quiet, accepting, obedient, etc
ii. Pariah femininity: women performing qualities that are not emphasized femininity/masculine
a) rational logical = men, women = sweet, but if you speak up for yourself, you are called emotional, crazy psychos
IV. Men in their own lives vs in the workplace.
A. How does this activate in the gender structure of the organization?
V. How is Complicit masculinity reflected in NP workplace?
A. Anecdotes from Mazarine and Helen
B. I’ve been doing this my whole life, why are you bringing this up now?
i. This didn’t happen to my grandfather, so it must be a problem with modern women.
VI. Men and Women dollop episodes.
A. Letter writing- Post office.
i. And all the other times technology has been fear mongered because it allows women to communicate better