It is easy to look at the ‘manosphere’ as a faraway land, one where a few unfortunate men have ended up in a bid for fame and fortune on Instagram and TikTok. ‘Not all men’ – and definitely not the men we know, hang out with, are related to, work with or hire.
But the headlines are getting louder, and it is clear that outdated and harmful beliefs about gender roles are making a comeback. A recent global study of 23,000 people conducted by Ipsos and King’s College London found that 31 per cent of Gen Z men think wives should always obey their husbands, while a report from Movember found that 63 per cent of young men regularly watch masculinity influencers online. On the more extreme end, the manosphere reaches frightening and disturbing depths – in March, a CNN investigation exposed how 62 million visits were made in February alone to a website where men discussed how to drug and assault women.
The current misogynist climate circulating online is a workplace issue – but not because every man consuming manosphere content becomes harmful, or because every man is part of Telegram groups that commit crime. It is a workplace issue because ideals that stem from this content can weave themselves into workplace norms – in how peers interact, how people lead and what is deemed acceptable in company cultures.
Indeed, research shows us that workplace harassment is still a prevalent issue. According to 2024 research from the Young Women’s Trust, more than a quarter of young women reported experiencing sexual harassment, while a third of HR decision makers agreed that sexist behaviour still existed in their organisation.
The online world is not disconnected from our everyday working lives – it shows up in meetings and group chats, but also in hiring decisions, sexist assumptions and how women are spoken about when they are not in the room. The repeated exposure to this kind of content can normalise a perception that gender equality is a threat and feminism is the enemy, and encourage an unhealthy suspicion of women.
While it may sometimes show up as more overt behaviours, the invisible threat is the slow but insidious normalisation of women being seen as less credible, competent and ‘to blame’ for men’s struggles. Every workplace has female survivors in it, and women facing everyday gender bias, from healthcare access to caring responsibilities and leadership challenges. We need to consider these women’s experiences today more than ever before.
Businesses also need to explore how misogynist rhetoric is filtering down into the workplace. At Male Allies UK, we are sometimes brought in by companies to support apprentices who have some behaviours or beliefs that are actively hostile to women. In this vein, organisations should be asking: do men have a space to explore challenges, support each other, develop allyship skills and open up about things impacting men and masculinities? These are not spaces for men to vent, but rather to find support and to speak up as allies. Supporting men’s challenges tackles the manosphere narrative that ‘nobody cares about me’.
We also need to consider the impact that national news events – like those 62 million website visits – have on women in the workplace. HR teams and managers need to think about how their feelings can be expressed without being invalidated, and we need to consider those who have been through traumatic experiences who may be reliving their trauma silently at their desks. Just checking in with female staff shows that an organisation is thinking about the impact of the current climate on its people.
This is why male allyship matters. Men can build the skills to challenge these harmful narratives before they become the norm or shift even further. They can role model different forms of masculinity than the ones sold online. They can showcase true partnership, amplify the voices of women, call out poor behaviour and educate themselves on the lived experiences of women.
What we see in our work is that it’s not effective to tell men what to think – it’s much better to help them build the skills to think critically, use discomfort to grow and find value in integrity, fairness and respect. Being proactive safeguards culture, mitigates risk and creates a workplace where everyone can perform, everyone can belong and everyone can reach their potential. And that won’t happen if we presume that the online world stays online.
Actively shaping culture and building allyship capacity is an indicator that a company is taking misogyny seriously, and that message alone is worth its weight in gold in a world full of talk but so little intentional action. Fair, safe cultures and allyship skills benefit men too. It’s not a zero-sum game – despite what some manosphere influencers say.
Lee Chambers is a business psychologist and the founder of Male Allies UK and Male Allyship Week.
This article is reprinted with permission. First published here.