Press Release: NYC’s Stony Brook Professor Michael Kimmel in Sydney to ‘talk tough’ with corporate Australia

Kimmel gets personal with Aussie men on gender equality:

“If you want an instant feminist, talk to a dad whose daughter has just hit puberty.”

Sydney, 3 May 2016 – One of the world’s leading experts on men and masculinities, Dr Michael Kimmel, will be in Sydney next month to spread the message that gender equality is not a zero-sum game, and may be the best thing that has ever happened to men.

Hosted and curated by TalkPoint, and supported by a collaborative cohort led by Lendlease, KPMG Australia and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Dr Kimmel’s week-long tour kicks off on Friday, 20 May with ‘Gathering Men’, a breakfast workshop for corporate leaders and champions of diversity.

A tireless advocate of engaging men to support gender equality, Dr Kimmel said, “Gender equality is right, fair and just, but it’s also smart. It’s good business. If we want to move this needle, we have to engage men in a way that they understand, so that the business case for gender equality is also seen as a personal one.”

“We need to bring men into the conversation not just as ‘men’ but as fathers, sons, brothers, lovers, partners, and we need to demonstrate to them that gender equality is in their interests. The challenge is in developing a language within workplace culture that enables people to access this,” said Kimmel.

In Australia, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency reports that women continue to earn less than men, are less likely to advance their careers as far as men, and are more likely to spend their final years in poverty. At the same time, men often find it more difficult to access family-friendly policies or flexible working arrangements than women.

TalkPoint founder, Robyn Katz, said, “Dr Kimmel is a remarkable educator and a gifted storyteller. He will open up with corporate Australia a new, uninhibited conversation about men and masculinity in the 21st Century, what it means to be a ‘good man’, how gender equality can benefit men, and what our leaders can do to create workplaces that allow everyone to thrive as equals.”
“To facilitate this, we have created a unique cross-sector collaborative cohort of companies and organisations with a firm commitment to gender equality. Together, we can leverage the healthy competition that exists in business to disrupt traditional approaches and cause systemic shift in gender equality in Australia,” said Katz.

While here, Dr Kimmel will also be involved in the Sydney Writers’ Festival on 22 May, and speak at TEDxSydney 2016 on 25 May. He will also engage in a number of private events and consultations as part of the collaborative cohort.

Lead members of the collaborative cohort are Lendlease, KPMG Australia and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, supported by the Equality Rights Alliance, The Launch Pod, the Australian Film Television and Radio School, and The Thinking Field.

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About Dr Michael Kimmel

Dr Michael Kimmel is one of the world’s leading experts on men and masculinities. He is the SUNY Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at Stony Brook University. Among his many books are Manhood in America, Angry White Men, The Politics of Manhood, The Gendered Society and the best seller Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men. With funding from the MacArthur Foundation, he founded the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities at Stony Brook in 2013. Kimmel has lectured at more than 300 college, universities and high schools. He has delivered the International Women’s Day annual lecture at the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Council of Europe, and has worked with the Ministers for Gender Equality of Norway, Denmark and Sweden in developing programs for boys and men. He consults widely with corporations, NGOs and public sector organizations on gender equity issues. His 2015 TED Talk has received more than 1 million views, and he was recently called “the world’s most prominent male feminist” in The Guardian newspaper in London.

About the #KimmelTalks Collaborative Cohort

TalkPoint has created a unique cross-sector collaborative cohort of companies and organisations with a firm commitment to gender equality. Together, we can leverage the healthy competition that exists in business to disrupt traditional approaches and cause a systemic shift towards gender equality in Australia. Members of the cohort include:

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