There is strong evidence that more diverse teams produce better results. Diversity in thinking, experience, age, gender, race, etc. leads to more innovation and that innovation can yield the next big breakthrough. In addition, customers are becoming more diverse. American women, who are the breadwinners or co-breadwinners in over 65 percent of American households, decide over $11.2 trillion in spending. So if diversity is so creatively and economically powerful, why aren’t we seeing more of it in organizations? We decided to ask the men.

Earlier this summer, Fairygodboss, a job and career destination for women, and Artemis Connection, a data-driven consulting firm focused on aligning strategy and teams, teamed up to create the Men in the Workplace Survey, collecting feedback from men about their experiences with gender diversity and bias. Over the past several years, organizations have increasingly focused time and resources on attracting and retaining talented women to build gender diversity. Companies tout everything from diversity targets to enhanced maternity leave to bias training to flying nannies. And yet evidence from over 10,000 employer reviews analyzed by Fairygodboss suggests that using a top-down approach alone is not sufficient to build a path to a truly gender diverse workplace.

We surveyed 318 men employed in a variety of professional industries to gather our insights. Of these 318 men, 95 percent were between 18 and 59 and 91 percent were from the United States, with the remainder mostly spread across Europe. We followed up with 31 of these men for interviews. Here are some of our key learnings:

• According to the men we surveyed, inclusion and work/life balance are seen as the biggest challenges faced by women in the workplace. Older employees in particular additionally believe women struggle to acquire fair compensation and meaningful mentorship. When we followed up with interviews, several men mentioned they also wanted more work/life balance and less “bro/locker room” culture. One said he knew he was at an advantage because at least he was included in these male-centric conversations.
• A third of men surveyed feel women are treated unfairly in the workplace, but only 10 percent think it happens in their workplace. “All employees have different challenges, considerations and sensitivities. It is important to treat all employees/colleagues equally, and handle each individual sensitively. In our company culture, I have not found the struggle of women to be more accentuated or straining,” one respondent said.
• 29 percent of men surveyed have met with a woman in the workplace to discuss equality, inclusion and diversity. The majority of the conversations were informal.
• Older employees are more likely to publicly advocate for equality, inclusion and diversity. They are also more likely to identify cases of inequality and work to fix them. One respondent in his late fifties said “I’ve seen several fully competent women leave our company because we don’t allow them to work less than a full schedule. They’ve proposed a job share or other acceptable alternatives that were not agreed to by management. And I have two daughters who are in the working world.”

What Startups Can Learn from Established Companies

In short: make diversity a priority from the get-go. As we analyzed the data, we decided to dig into the history of the few companies that were made up of at least 50 percent female employees and/or had an above-average percentage of women in senior leadership roles. We found that two of the companies surveyed had female founders; a testament to how powerful the ripple effect of diversity can be. 

In addition, companies that lack a history of diversity and inclusion can make dramatic transformations. A leader at an established technology company said “My group is about 50 percent women, and I believe the managers in my group may even be closer to 60 percent women, which is very rare in engineering and technology. I suspect this isn’t due to some panacea to sexism [our organization] has stumbled across, nor does it indicate that no one in my office has internalized any of the sexism in our society, but rather that they’ve made efforts to try to negate what sexism they have control over in hiring and in promotions. I do believe that there are far less than 50 percent women in the level immediately above my managers, which likely indicates that the changes they have made to hiring and promotion schedule were implemented more than five years ago, but less than 10 to 15 years ago.”

What You Can Do to Foster Diversity

There are a number of ways organizations can be proactive. Below are few effective tactics:

• Just like with our personal health, prevention is easier than rehabilitation. Thinking about diversity and inclusion early on – whether it be with your technology team, your sales team, your leadership team, or your board – will yield more innovation and better returns.
• Hold people in leadership positions accountable. Many of our survey respondents echoed that diversity initiatives are not being focused on by the right people in their organizations. Diversity and inclusion initiatives are usually owned by a staff or HR committee. If you do not have anyone in leadership owning diversity, then change will be hard to come by.
• Train managers. Research from Stanford shows that when people are assigned to better bosses, they are less likely to leave their firms.It is best if the training starts during a manager’s first year and is on-the-job, because carve-outs and webinars are easy to deem irrelevant.
• Try, learn, iterate, and share your results. Experiment with new approaches to improve women’s inclusion at work, and men’s active participation in these efforts. Trying various methods is vital to discovering what works for your unique company and imperative to achieving a better workforce for all.

This article was written in conjunction with Romy Newman, president & co-founder of Fairygodboss.