A growing network of online communities known collectively as the “manosphere” is emerging as a serious threat to gender equality, as toxic digital spaces increasingly influence real-world attitudes, behaviours, and policies, the UN agency dedicated to ending gender discrimination has warned.
I’m banging on about it? You highlighted it from my list and came up with the false narrative that I am somehow OK with womens-only clubs, something I’ve never claimed (that’s a strawman FYI).
You’re not interested to learn, nor to have an honest debate. Good luck with that attitude, you’ll need it.
Women and men-only clubs have a lot of value. We have women only clubs at work because our industry is pretty male-centric, so getting women access to good female mentors is super important because they’re distributed across the company. Men can be good mentors for women too, sure, but anytime there’s a minority, it’s important to connect them to help them recognize and point out implicit biases. We have groups like that for racial minorities as well, and I think it’s great.
Men and women also bond differently, so having a gender-specific club can lower barriers to connecting and finding support. That’s true for other characteristics as well, like sexual and gender identity, race (I’m a huge fan of our black chamber of commerce in our predominantly white area), age, etc.
We should embrace and celebrate our differences, not try to hide them away. Let everyone have their own club, and maintain rules against intolerance as well.