…not a feminist rant… |

…not a feminist rant…

Published by yojules March 13th, 2010 in General

I have been looking at the Avo space with fresh eyes over the past couple of months. It has just happened that I have had a few powerful and influential men engage with us in all sorts of ways recently, and those engagements have made me feel really proud of the women empowerment space we have created here.

We’re not a company of women per se - our staff makeup is predominantly female, but we have our fair share of capable and enlightened men who are able to function without being threatened by powerful women. For us, the space feels normal - we work together as a team of competent folk, and don’t notice the exceptional womanness that surrounds us.

But when men come in from the outside, who are not as used to working with powerful female teams as one might think, the insights I’ve been getting are extraordinary.

Firstly, most of them underestimate our team at face value. Almost without fail they will, at some stage, express surprise at the brainpower and capability, not to mention pure confident presence of me, or other women on the team.

Then, the lack of executive male presence seems to make them feel a bit uncomfortable at an unconscious level - almost as if we can’t really be trusted to pull off the huge expectations they have of our company.

It’s followed by a ‘this is weird, but nice; too-good-to-be-true?’ conversation when they begin to settle into working with us, and find our candid, practical warmth refreshing and engaging.

It’s all very flattering, of course, but shows a sadder side up for me: despite all the good work that has been done over the past 20 years, there is still a pervading expectation that women are somehow ‘less than’ their male counterparts. Every time a man expresses surprise at the performance of women in general, he reveals an underlying predjudice that is still firmly in place.

In the face of all this, enter Steve: a 50-year-old grey haired white male, who is taking on the senior role of managing the day-today Avo operations while I focus on building Footprint and my ‘pinky and the brain’ strategy.

He’s never had a woman boss; he’s completely bewildered by how this Woman-DNA business actually operates; he makes at least 1 ‘this woman just surprised me’ comment a day! But what I love about having him around, is that he is refreshingly aware of every time his prejuduce trips him up; he senses a learning curve ahead of him that goes way beyond simply making this business work; and he’s not threatened by the lionesses that prowl the Avo corridors (much). At last Avo adds to its diversity mix a token middle aged pale male: Welcome aboard, Steve Gaydon. I’m really looking forward to helping you see the light! And also, of course learning from you in buckets!

5 Responses to “…not a feminist rant…”

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1 Raelene Mar 14th, 2010 at 8:44 pm

You go girls ! Like everything in life, it will take time for us to reach an equilibrium, for now, its amazing being part of a talented pride of beautiful lionesses !
2 Clayton Mar 15th, 2010 at 11:21 am

While female lions will hunt and kill most of the animals for the pride to eat, male lions are around primarily to defend the territory from other lion prides. There is a nice balance here at Avo. It’s great to have a new perspective from fresh eyes, but just as great to have a warm and inviting attitude to new members of the pride.

Well done Avo PS. I think the word in brackets should be MUNCH instead of much!
3 carlajo Mar 15th, 2010 at 11:25 am

So priviledged to be a part of this amazing pride! I love working with women who show their potential while making a difference at the same time. May Avo continue to surprise many South Africans!
4 Grant Newton Mar 16th, 2010 at 3:54 pm

A young dude approached me on a programme the other day, it happens now and agian. He was amazed, pulled me to one side and asked, “how do you cope man, how do you do it?” He’d realised who Jules was, (most of you know … the context). He said its so rare to find a another guy who’s woman is the lead bread winner. And proceeded to tell me how hard it was, that he is battling to deal with it, his girlfriend nogal, who is just flying out ‘ahead’ of him and, in his eyes ‘doing better than him’. His friends are also not very understanding of him, they don’t get why he is staying in the relationship. And he cant be more than 28 years old. He wanted me to tell him the secret … ??? … I guess the problem may be more extensive than we think.

I suppose i told him to find his and her strengths in the relationship and capitalise on them. Its what we do at Avo, find the right strength and allow it to fly. I also prefer to work with a bunch of talented people who get stuff done, but, who are at the same time able to be caring and understanding (properly). In South Africa one of the spinoffs of BEE is a huge increase in the number of women in the work place. They are bringing a fantastic shift to the working culture- something that is more balanced, holistic and focused on the wellbeing of people. So … out there - Guys get a grip - this is not a competition (and you could learn some stuff) and Girls its ok, you can lose the steel balls, just bring your strengths to work: they are needed.
5 Mel Mar 17th, 2010 at 9:13 am

Such an apt metaphor. I am enjoying it so much. What a great replacement for the “with balls” metaphor! Purrr, Grrr, Roar - all in one day.

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