By Jim Ewing. Special to the Clarion-Ledger Sunday print edition (February 18)
With That’s What She Said, journalist Joanne Lipman has produced a “woke” moment in the unfolding #MeToo movement.
Subtitled “What Men Need to Know (And Women Need to Tell Them) About Working Together,” the former chief content officer of Gannett and editor-in-chief of USA Today offers an eye-opening book about workplace inequality including to-the-point life lessons that are, at times, cringe worthy, humorous and profound. (Full disclosure: I worked briefly at USA Today in the 1980s and left the Gannett-owned Clarion-Ledger in 2012, before she joined the company.)
Lipman details research regarding our culture, male/female physiology, cultural bias (including, especially, hidden bias), scientific studies, polls, attempts various companies have made to address workplace inequality, and interviews with cutting-edge leaders in the field. Her research even took her to a penis museum in Iceland (boasting 285 specimens, including the world’s largest!).
Lipman states upfront in her introduction, “Men Aren’t the Enemy” that “there will be no man shaming” in the book, “No male bashing.” And she holds true to that. She offers anecdotes from other women, her own life, and pertinent facts to outline how women can thrive amid old shames and new challenges at work. But it’s not for women only. Indeed, as an explainer, it’s largely geared toward men.
“We need men to join the conversation,” she writes, noting that if only women engage in the narrative, and women “only talk among themselves, we can only solve 50 percent of the problem.”
If it’s a shared dialogue, however, Lipman reveals stories and lessons that only working women can relate (and men need to hear). For example, she details various routine slights of women by men that men might not even be aware of, including interrupting women more than men, taking credit for their ideas, and automatically discounting their merit.
But rather than attacking, she turns it around to offer opportunities for men and women to “reengineer” workplace culture and their personal lives. Included is a list of simple, practical remedies titled “Cheat Sheet: Tips and Takeaways for Men — and Women.”
While the sheer weight of the facts of patriarchy in modern culture can be depressing, and the gender wage gap seems particularly stubborn, Lipman shares her belief that awareness will help change hostile work environments, unequal pay and bad behavior by men and she does her level best to honestly present both problems and solutions.
This book is a wake-up call for business managers, business owners, and men and women themselves about the opportunities being missed by underutilizing, ignoring and/or deterring women from success in the workplace.
She Said comes less than six months after the sexual misconduct revelations about Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein that has prompted an international movement of women posting on social media similar outrages under the #MeToo hashtag (including in France #BalanceTonPorc or “squeal on your pig”). A tsunami of men losing careers and reputations in all walks of life has resulted.
She Said should find a home amid other hashtags, including: #LeanInTogether and #HeForShe, enlisting more men in the cause and, perhaps, help lead to the ultimate one of full #equality.
Jim Ewing, a former writer and editor at the Clarion-Ledger, is the author of seven books including his latest, Redefining Manhood: A Guide for Men and Those Who Love Them.
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