UWLP Blog - Male Allies

This male allyship discussion series is aimed at helping support efforts of A Bolder Way Forward, a statewide movement to help more girls and women in Utah thrive.

Researchers conducted a study to establish a baseline of public perceptions about the awareness, understanding, and attitudes around challenges Utah women and girls face. This summary includes leadership development, STEM fields, and male allyship.

Read our blog or watch the full recording of our second Fall Women’s Leadership Forum about sexism in Utah.

Did you miss this Fall forum? Don't worry! You can read about it and watch the full recording here.

Did you miss this Women's Leadership Forum event? Don't worry! You can read about it and watch the full recording here.

Did you miss this Spring Women's Leadership Forum event? Don't worry- you can learn more about this event and watch the full recording here.

Although Utah research has shown that there has been slight progress in terms of women and leadership in some sectors, national sources continue to rank Utah as one of the worst states for women’s equality. Clearly there is still work to be done to “move the needle” so that more Utah women become leaders.

Understanding that male engagement is critical in reducing workplace gender imbalances, these suggestions focus on what men can do in professional settings to create awareness, rethink systems, build capacity (in both women and men), foster developmental relationships, and advocate for necessary cultural change.

Six primary themes emerged from the qualitative data gathered from the combined survey and dialogue table notes. There is interesting overlap between these data and those listed above. First, the most frequently mentioned solution is to help more women in Utah to attend and complete college.

If anything, men tilt toward overconfidence—and we were surprised to learn that they come by that state quite naturally. They aren’t consciously trying to fool anyone. Ernesto Reuben, a professor at Columbia Business School, has come up with a term for this phenomenon: honest overconfidence.