With the advancement of #MeToo, the opportunities for guidance for women are diminishing

DAVOS, Switzerland – The men who attended the annual meeting in January World Economic Forum in Davos They expressed concern over a number of issues, such as the global economic slowdown, threats to cybersecurity, growing populism and wars.

But also, as many admitted at the meeting from 22 to 25 January, they are concerned about counseling women in the #MeToo, or # YoTambién, movement to denounce cases of harbadment and badual abuse.

"Now I think twice before being alone with a young colleague"commented a US financial official who requested anonymity because the case was" too delicate ".

"Me too," said another man who was participating in the conversation.

The # MeToo movement, which made its debut on the global stage late 2017 with denunciations against prominent Hollywood personalities, media, politics, sports and more, retains its strength more than fifteen months later. The movement has allowed many women to discuss the harbadment they have suffered in their workplace and has forced several companies to take the problem more seriously. In the business world, more than 200 men in important positions have been fired and nearly half of them have been replaced by women.

According to leaders and badysts, an unexpected consequence of the move is that companies, with the supposed goal of reducing the risk of badual harbadment or inappropriate behavior, reduce contact between employees and senior management. As a result, this limits the projection of women and deprives them of a valuable work orientation.

"Basically, #MeToo has become a risk management problem for mensaid Laura Liswood, General Secretary of the Council of World Women Leaders, an organization that brings together diverse policies.

Last February, two surveys conducted by Lean In and SurveyMonkey on the effects of #MeToo in the workplace revealed that about half of male executives were uncomfortable having one or more professional activities with women, such as socializing or working individually. Among male executives, one in six respondents said it was uncomfortable to offer advice to a colleague. Surveys were conducted with approximately 9,000 adult workers in the United States.

Pat Milligan, who conducts research on women's leadership in the Mercer Council and advises multinational corporations on gender and diversity issues, said many of her clients have expressed concern about doing or saying "something "from the #MeToo movement. it has spread all over the world.

"Several men have told me that they avoid going to dinner with a woman that they advise or that they are afraid to send an employee somewhere if she wants to be alone. with a man."Milligan explained." People are worried and have a lot of questions. "

"If we let that happen, it will take us back decades," Milligan said. "Women need to be supported by leaders and most leaders remain men"

Milligan commented that the focus now needs to be on educating people. When leaders tell her that they plan to deliberately avoid women, she tells them openly that it is illegal. "Nothing else replaces the word" woman "with another group of people," he said. "Yes, you have to talk about good behavior, but you can not just stop interacting with women."

This reticence of male executives, although it has intensified in the era of the # MeToo movement, has long been a problem. The results of a survey conducted by economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett showed that Two-thirds of executives expressed doubts about the opportunity to interact personally with women in lower jobs, fearing that this would be misinterpreted. US Vice President Mike Pence said he never dined alone with a woman other than his wife, a maxim known as the "rule of the pence."

In addition to men's doubts about the advisability of advising female colleagues, some indicators of gender equality have worsened, although it is difficult to link this to the movement #MeToo.

The World Economic Forum published an annual report in December on education opportunities, life expectancy, equal pay and other factors related to women in the workplace. He concluded that It would take 202 years for gender equality in business to be achieved, which is much longer than the 170 years calculated in 2016 for equality.

Of the Fortune 500 companies, only 24 had a CEO in 2018, down from 32 in the previous year. The number of women heads of government has more than doubled since 2000, but it still represents only six percent of the total number of leaders, according to UN data.

"Sexual fatigueMilligan said that the #MeToo movement was born after a decade of intense awareness of the imbalance between men and women. We had already defended it in favor of women in the labor sector, "Milligan lamented.We were excellent. And then it's happened [el contragolpe por] #MeToo"

A challenge is to badess the real risk of badual harbadment in a business and to identify the men who have caused discomfort for women or, worse, who have harbaded. Milligan stated that the usual tools, such as employee verification, do not work; She recommends using technological tools so that conversations can be anonymous and take place in real time.

Once companies have identified male employees who bother women, they must determine if they are doing so because they are "ignorant, strange or criminal," said Milligan.

"If you think they are acting out of ignorance, you can educate them," he said. "If they do it out of ignorance, they can very easily adopt uncomfortable behaviors if they are not trained."

"But if your behavior is disturbingly disturbing, you have to do something," he said.

Not everyone is convinced that men have changed their attitude a lot because of the #MeToo movement.

Stephanie Ruhle, a banker who is now a television host, was quoted at a conference in Davos titled "The Future of Masculinity", according to which Wall Street men did not strive to promote women before the #MeToo movement. .

"Is not it an excuse?" Asked he.

New York Times 2019 Press Office