Gender Imbalance in Sustainabiltiy

Sustainability is an interesting field of work and I have found a distinct difference in gender between the two different work streams. The first 'Corporate Sustainability' seems to be very heavily male dominated, where as the general 'environmental' typed sustainability is very heavily female dominated. I have found that the not for profit typed groups, that seem to fit in the latter group, are also mainly female. The corporate field seems to attract men as it is very business and organisationally focussed and I suspect the balance of male to female would be similar at business school etc.

Michael Field

Corporate Sustainability Manager
North Shore City Council
Tel: +64 (0)9 486 8585 ext 7199
Mob: +64 (0) 27 223 5546
Email: [email protected] 

Sue

Your observation indeed appears to be an accurate reflection of sustainability in general. For instance, the NSW study "Who cares about the Environment" http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/whocares/index.htmResearch found that women are more likely than men to rate the environment and service to others as important in their life. They are also more concerned about future generations. Another study summarises that women usually have a less extensive environmental knowledge than men but they are more emotionally engaged, show more concern about environmental destruction, believe less in technological solutions, and are more willing to change. In terms of the reasons behind it, values research has documented that women are more likely to hold values which are more directed toward caring and nurturing. Personality research shows that the traits of empathy and sensitivity are higher in women. So any way you look at it, women are statistically more likely to be "nurturing" as you suggested. (In fact, I was shocked to find out recently that 77% of registered psychologists in Victoria are female)

Cheers
Tim Cotter

Registered Psychologist
AWAKE
56 Bloomfield Rd, Ascot Vale,
Melbourne, VIC 3032, Australia
Tel: (+61 3) 9370 0273
Fax: (+61 3) 9370 0276
Mobile: (+61) 0404 212 903
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.awake.com.au

Hi Tim,

I attended a very interesting workshop a few weeks ago on the communication surrounding the topic of sustainability and we covered your exact point on what males and females find as drivers for change and interest. I think that the main reason why the field of sustainability has attracted so many women is because we have chosen to use compassion to drive most of our comm's. We talk about intergenerational equity and wonder why men aren't interested. There have been some great comm's strategies that Green Peace has used that talk about reputation and what people think of you, which are fantastic. Basically there's an advert that shows a guy walking into an office and everyone avoids him, talk about him behind his back, pin nasty words to his back etc (done in a funny and clever way). Anyway, at the end of the advert he leaves work, alone, and walks to his car, which turns out to be a huge 4 wheel drive and the slogan comes up "what does your car say about you". This is an excellent way to get men to engage as we are driven by social acceptance and the need to 'not look bad'. I really believe that with some intelligent comm's sustainability could mainstream very quickly and very much attract men to the field. 

Thanks for sharing that example, Michael. This is an interesting question to ponder, Tim. I'm in California, and at least from where I stand, there is good measure of both men and women in the field of sustainable business. My MBA (business) program also had what seemed a balanced number of male/female. The endeavors they were or are involved in seem to blur across the lines of nurture/connection/ technology based approaches to solutions, products, services. They say the Bay Area (San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, etc) are a bit of a bubble when it comes to the rest of the state, the country, so my observations may be exceptions to the trends. However, the MBA program I'm in attracts people from out of the area, as far as Paris, so who knows...

Paul Smith

2007 MBA, Sustainable Management
Presidio School of Management
530.752.8993 (Grass Valley)
510.420.0878 (Oakland)
psmith{at}presidiomba.org