Julie Kratz is the author of One: How Male Allies Support Women for Gender Equality.

Julie Kratz, Pivot Point

Our 24-hour news cycle is filled with thousands of short-lived moments: a school shooting; government corruption; crisis in the Middle East. Each headline crowds out the next. It can be hard to focus on one story for any period of time. But every now and then, a story sticks around. It breaks through the noise of the busy news cycle. A moment becomes a movement.

From the admission of a presidential candidate that he had groped women and gotten away with it, to the Women’s March last year, and gaining momentum with the Harvey Weinstein revelations, the #MeToo movement began. Women are organizing, speaking out and taking action.

It’s important to remember that #MeToo is about more than sexual harassment and sexual assault. It’s also about equal career opportunities and equal pay for equal work.

Men may want to help, but may not know where to begin. There’s a new book available that deals with just this question of how to be a male ally. It’s called One: How Male Allies Support Women for Gender Equality. It’s written by Julie Kratz, the founder of Pivot Point. She is a speaker, a trainer, and author. This book was written after extensive interviews with successful women and male allies.

In this interview, Julie describes what an organization might look like if it achieved gender equality. She contrasts that with the current reality. Julie describes the consequences to organizations who do not maximize the talents of women. She provides indicators that organizations can look for to indicate whether or not they are achieving gender equality. She provides some positive examples of organizations who are getting gender equality right.

Julie also lays out four key strategies for being a successful male ally:

• Channeling the women they empathize
• Asking for her HERstory
• Speaking up with her
• Doing the fair share

You can also read an explanation of each of these key areas on Julie’s blog here.

About Julie Kratz

Julie is a leadership trainer. She led teams in companies such as Caterpillar, Nationwide Insurance, and Adayana. After experiencing her own career “pivot point,” Julie developed a process to help women leaders create their winning career game plan.

Julie promotes gender equality in the workplace by helping women navigate their “what’s next” moments. Julie is a frequent keynote speaker and executive coach. Julie is also the author of Pivot Point: How to Build a Winning Career Game Plan.

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes from Julie Kratz

[spp-tweet tweet=”“An ally is somebody that is in it with you…side-by-side with you.” Julie Kratz, @nextpivotpoint”]

[spp-tweet tweet=”“Ideally, you would look around the leadership table and see diversity.” Julie Kratz, @nextpivotpoint”]

“When you have gender equality at the highest level of organizations, you have a much stronger profitability number.”

[spp-tweet tweet=”“McKinsey cites a 16% higher profitability rate with gender equality organizations.” Julie Kratz, @nextpivotpoint”]

[spp-tweet tweet=”“It’s not a zero-sum game.” Julie Kratz, @nextpivotpoint”]

[spp-tweet tweet=”“The statistics aren’t really changing.” Julie Kratz, @nextpivotpoint”]

[spp-tweet tweet=”“What we’ve found is, it’s not blatant.” Julie Kratz, @nextpivotpoint”]

“We’ve accepted that things are changing. It’s going to be a slow, gradual change. But, that’s actually not true. If we don’t do something now, it can actually get worse.”

[spp-tweet tweet=”“The world just has to be different for my daughters.” Julie Kratz, @nextpivotpoint”]

“It’s not a line-item on your financials, which is why I think there is not a sense of urgency.”

[spp-tweet tweet=”“The power of the team is so much stronger because all voices are heard.” Julie Kratz, @nextpivotpoint”]

[spp-tweet tweet=”“80% of the buying decisions in our country are made by women.” Julie Kratz, @nextpivotpoint”]

[spp-tweet tweet=”“Look around. Think about who is not here.” Julie Kratz, @nextpivotpoint”]

[spp-tweet tweet=”“Women, on average, for the same work are paid 83% of what their male peers are paid.” Julie Kratz, @nextpivotpoint”]

“There’s this unconscious bias, the subtle things we do every day with how we value women’s work.”

[spp-tweet tweet=”“When you say it’s a priority, your behaviors match that it’s a priority.” Julie Kratz, @nextpivotpoint”]

[spp-tweet tweet=”“There are a lot of men in the middle that I call men on the fringe.” Julie Kratz, @nextpivotpoint”]

[spp-tweet tweet=”“Men are better suited to call out bad behavior from other men.” Julie Kratz, @nextpivotpoint”]

“You think about what has held women back, I don’t think we’ve been so good at including men in the dialog. We’re talking about 50% of the population.”

[spp-tweet tweet=”“Men need to feel included. They need to feel a part of this.” Julie Kratz, @nextpivotpoint”]

[spp-tweet tweet=”“Strong women leaders engage these men in their careers.” Julie Kratz, @nextpivotpoint”]

[spp-tweet tweet=”“Ask a woman what it’s like to be her.” Julie Kratz, @nextpivotpoint”]

[spp-tweet tweet=”“People want to talk about it, but they don’t know how.” Julie Kratz, @nextpivotpoint”]

[spp-tweet tweet=”“Think of one thing you can do to support this conversation.” Julie Kratz, @nextpivotpoint”]

[spp-tweet tweet=”“We need men as allies.” Julie Kratz, @nextpivotpoint”]

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

• Book: One: How Male Allies Support Women for Gender Equality: http://amzn.to/2Ed1FMa
• Book: Pivot Point: How to Build a Winning Career Game Plan for Mid-Career Women: http://amzn.to/2lqHhOL
• Pivot Point: https://www.nextpivotpoint.com
• Pivot Point Podcast: https://www.nextpivotpoint.com/pivot-point-podcast
• Julie Kratz on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nextpivotpoint
• Pivot Point on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nextpivotpoint
• Julie Kratz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-kratz-06a015b
• McKinsey report, Women Matter: Ten years of insights on gender diversity: https://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/gender-equality/women-matter-ten-years-of-insights-on-gender-diversity
• Michael Kimmel’s TED talk, “Why gender equality is good for everyone – men included: https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_kimmel_why_gender_equality_is_good_for_everyone_men_included
• Book: Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives our Success: http://amzn.to/2Ec6KEn
• Book: Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World: http://amzn.to/2EbgyhR
• Book: Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy: http://amzn.to/2Dve6S3
• Book: All In: How Our Work-First Culture Fails Dads, Families, and Business and How We Can Fix It Together: http://amzn.to/2DvwYQV
• HeForShe, sponsored by UN Women: http://www.heforshe.org
• Book: Crazy Good Advice: 10 Lessons Learned from 150 Leading Social Entrepreneurs: https://tonyloyd.com/book