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Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Meta, says workplaces need to embrace “masculine energy.”
Speaking on a podcast – the entire episode is three hours long (give us strength!) – Zuckerberg said the corporate world is “culturally neutered,” adding, “I think having a culture that celebrates the aggression a bit more has its own merits that are really positive.”
Before you boil over with anger, save it – because don’t worry, he continues: “It’s one thing to say we want to be kind of, like, welcoming and make a good environment for everyone… and I think it’s another to basically say that ‘masculinity is bad.’”
My first question is, Mark, are you well? Are you aware of the world we actually live in? Do you know where male aggression has got us in our society and how bad toxic masculinity is? But lest we forget, one of Zuckerberg's earliest projects was Facemash, a “prank” website he created to check the relationship statuses of his fellow female students and rate them. Plus, we're living in a time where billionaires are scrambling to be in line with President-elect Donald Trump’s unique brand of toxic masculinity.
Side note: Zuckerberg’s comments also come after he scrapped fact-checking from his site and suggested he is looking into doing the same with his diversity and inclusion team.
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These comments couldn’t come at a worse time. Male violence against women and girls is escalating worldwide. News stories which tell the real-life destruction of women’s lives at the hands of aggressive masculine behaviour, including the rape conviction of Gisele Pelicot’s ex-husband and the murder of Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptei both highlight horrific behaviour that is happening across the world every single day.
Meanwhile, in workplaces, the gender pay gap is also not closing; no country has achieved gender equality, and in the UK, women effectively work for free from 30 November onwards. Over the last decade, around 90% of CEO positions in Fortune 500 companies were held by men. And while in the UK, there are more CEOs named Steve than female CEOs, I have been highly fortunate to have a wildly different workplace experience from the majority.
I'm a man who has exclusively worked in female-dominated spaces. All of my bosses have been women, and I have either been the only man in the room or one of two as I navigated a career starting as a fashion assistant at a major fashion magazine, all the way to being the Entertainment Director at GLAMOUR UK. And today, as I host my own podcast, Reign with Josh Smith – where a vast majority of my guests are high-profile women from Jodie Foster to Florence Pugh – my entire team is made up of women (and one man – who is great, BTW).
I truly didn’t realise how much of a privilege this was until very early into my career, when I heard of the experiences of my female friends who were working their way up the corporate ladder in workplaces filled with inappropriate comments, behaviour and, well… toxicity. My LGBTQIA+ friend’s experiences were not much different – some weren’t out at work due to fear, and one used to say absolutely nothing about his life outside of work, just in case he accidentally let it slip.
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I was shocked, as my experience of the workplace didn’t contain any inappropriate jokes or suggestions about a female colleague's sex life or the way they dressed or conducted themselves. Everyone was able to be transparent about themselves and their lives. And in this environment, no one tried to adopt ‘masculine’ behaviours like being assertive, talking over people, or manspreading to get ahead. Those kinds of behaviours were useless, disregarded and of zero worth.
Women were welcomed back and celebrated for making personal life decisions, from having babies to getting married, and made to feel these decisions wouldn’t hold them back in any way. Instead, the environment was entirely flexible around them. Why? This summed up everything female-dominated workplaces were about: supportive, encouraging, and pushing you to be the best version of yourself just as you were. Everyone could thrive in their jobs and lives outside of their jobs, and discussions about wellbeing and mental health were welcomed.
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Like in any work environment or relationship, things of course could fray, but the overall energy was about inclusion, not exclusion. As someone who was bullied at school largely by boys and even by male teachers who made inappropriate homophobic comments, to now dealing with hate online – every single one of the homophobic comments I get comes from a man – this environment was a haven for me.
When I know firsthand how incredible female-dominated workspaces can be, I find the comments from Zuckerberg deeply concerning. We tend to think these views about the positives of hyper-masculinity are restricted to Andrew Tate’s dark sliver of the internet, but Zuckerberg talking about cultural shifts in one of the biggest and most well-known companies in the world reinforces the opinions of some men who believe that masculinity is in crisis.
When we take into account a recent study that found over half of Gen Z boys and men think that feminism has gone too far, these comments only embolden misogynistic rhetoric across those already in the workplace and those entering it, making for a more toxic environment for everyone.
Zuckerberg’s comments don’t take into account how much damage patriarchal aggression does to everyone… including men! This isn’t just harmful to women; it's alarming for minority communities in workspaces, too. It worries me deeply that Zuckerberg’s comments imply women are taking over – because if they had, we wouldn’t be campaigning (again!) for reproductive rights or still fighting for equal pay. We need to empower more women, emboldening feminine energy for the good of every single workspace, not turning our attention to ramping up masculinity at this juncture.
Progress isn’t made in regression. Progress is made when we embrace new energy, not the energy of the old guard. We need to include everyone, men included, but that is something masculine energy is not used to doing. We need more feminine energy in workplaces, not less, for the benefit of all.
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