In addition to Moving Minds, I have worked as a research associate for a management consulting firm. Over the years, the firm has had difficulty retaining full-time female consultants and women in leadership roles. It is not for lack of trying. An effort would be made each hiring cycle to bring more women on, but they often left within six months to a year, causing the recruitment process to start all over again.
It is not that the atmosphere was openly hostile to women. The tone in the office was exceedingly polite. I never saw or heard any of the men be openly masochistic or disparaging towards myself or the other women in the office. Instead, there was a social structure within the organization that put women into a position where they constantly needed to make an effort to adjust to the men. It was commonplace to be the only woman in a meeting. On the other hand, men were comfortably in their element with other men and perhaps a woman or two.
The office’s social structure made it difficult for women to fully participate. First, the male-dominate power structure added difficulty to the interactions between managers and subordinates. For example, you would often see a manager take a male subordinate to lunch solo, but rarely would you see the same happen with the women. Second, when it came to company-sanctioned events, they often skewed towards events where the men were at ease.
The firm made an effort to create team-building exercises, including events such as drinks at bars, ax throwing, playing darts, and rock climbing. For me and other women I spoke to, it felt like part of my role was to demonstrate an ability to hang by drinking whisky and throwing an ax with the best of them. As a reward, we would feel respected and admired by our colleagues. They were impressed that we could hold our own. It is not that these outings weren't fun. Although designed to bring the group together, each event seemed to make the men feel more at ease while challenging the women to move out of their comfort zone.
We have heard feedback from offices when pitching a Moving Minds workshop that they can't picture their male coworkers participating in a dance experience. You have to wonder if the same concerns for the comfort and desires of the women are raised upon the suggestion of ax-throwing events at my office? Or, if concerns are raised, would they be countered with an argument that such events are good for the female coworkers because they make you feel uncomfortable and push you out of your comfort zone?
Dance is not an inherently female art, just as ax-throwing is not inherently male. But inherent in dance are feminine attributes such as grace and flexibility, just as ax throwing has masculine strength and power attributes. There is an imbalance in the workplace in how often women must take on a male perspective versus how often men have to take on a female perspective. It was not that the men at the firm were opposed to trying out a female point of view. It was that the workings of the office hardly challenged them to do so.
Dancing as a team-building exercise has many benefits to both men and women on a team. The benefits of dance can make a positive change in the work environment. Dance improves both physical and brain health (Harvard Dancing and the Brain). Participation in contemporary dance improves cognitive flexibility, the ability to think about multiple concepts simultaneously and switch attention between them. Dance also improves decision-making, reduces stress, and develops new neurons in the brain's executive function region. More recently, increased movement has also been found to improve creativity.
It’s regrettable to think that we would pass up the physical and mental benefits of dance simply because it might make a few people feel uncomfortable. Full inclusion is not simply about taking down the "No Girls Allowed" sign from the treehouse. Full inclusion is challenging each other to learn from our differences and our natural tendencies. Women in the workplace have been accepting this challenge for years. Are the men in the workplace up for it too?