Bain & Company and Chief Executive Women surveyed almost 2,000 Australians across more than 14 industries to understand the current levels of male engagement with gender equality initiatives, the most effective motivators to increase it and the barriers preventing uptake.

Findings include: 

• Three in four men support gender equality, but few of them take action to enable it.
• Senior leaders are nearly two and a half times more likely to be highly engaged than other male employees.
• Men under the age of 34 also reported higher levels of engagement than their older counterparts.
• Men with female role models, either at work or at home, were more than twice as likely to be highly engaged compared with those who had none.
• Fathers were nearly twice as likely to be highly engaged versus men with no children.
• Men who had fulfilled a primary caregiver role, at any point in their careers, were almost three times more likely to participate in gender parity programs or initiatives.

The report recommends a number of key actions to help increase male engagement on gender equality issues.

This is the seventh in a series of gender parity surveys produced by Bain & Company and Chief Executive Women.