“Choose to Challenge” to bring Butterfly Effect

As Deloitte Global, we have set our original IWD theme as “Butterfly Effect” this year. We have a report on stories of members whose small actions made big impact on someone else’s life or career, and the loop goes around the entire society around the world. This is a campaign to make butterfly effects and connect to the movement around the world with each one of our actions.

Butterfly Effect by Men

We have been having butterfly effect movement at Deloitte Tohmatsu Group. It started by one male member voicing as he tried to tackle work and family balances, when his daughter was born and he needed to split housework and childcare in half with his wife. He voiced concerns and brought tough discussions regarding gender issues and called for a change from male perspectives. Especially his points on “Old Boys’ Network” -informal yet exclusive, male-centric structure/community, keeps challenging fellow male members and driving for a change. 

He was able to see the systematic bias preventing gender equality, by facing his own challenges at balancing family and work. His passion keeps him running -which comes from desperate needs to change this before his daughters grow up. If you think of your loved ones and think; “Can we pass this world to our future generations?” -you can be in his shoes.

People used to think gender equality initiatives existed for women, but having men’s perspectives would bring more momentum for change. It’s not only women who get affected by gender roles, but also men. There are quite a few men who get trapped in the fixed gender role and hesitate to pursue what they want - for example, there are men who are scared to pursue flexible career path and value work-life balance as their evaluation may be lowered, or people think they gave up on their career. 

(*1) Old Boys’ Network： Informal, exclusive organization in traditional male-centric community where unwritten culture, customs, and rules are built and shared between male members 

Choose to Challenge for ALL

With the true gender equality, not only women but also men will be free of bias and will be able to pursue what they want -which means both women and men need to work on this issue. 

Therefore, International Women’s Day is not a day for women celebrated by women. It is a day for all of us to face our challenges in realizing a true gender equality.

What can we do to create a society where everyone can succeed regardless of their gender? What can we do to make a butterfly effect?

To make our life and your loved ones’ life better by realizing true equality and making a better world for our future generations, we all need to call for a change and take actions. Our “Choose to Challenge” will create a sustainable society including gender equality.