In an all-women discussion, Karen Andrews says she ‘would discourage a male in the current environment from taking on one-on-one mentoring’

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Industry minister Karen Andrews said she would “discourage” men from mentoring women in a one-on-one setting in the wake of the MeToo movement.

In an all-women discussion on ABC’s Q&A on Monday night, Andrews said that there was a “general concern from a lot of men” about how they “protect themselves from an accusation about their behaviour and their conduct” following successive global sexual harassment scandals, and that she would advise them to “be careful”.

“I would discourage a male in the current environment from taking on one-on-one mentoring, I would have to say,” Andrews said.

She said she would advise men providing professional mentoring to women to do so in a “group environment” to “make sure that everyone’s safe, clarifying that she was not advising men to avoid one-on-one mentoring relationships with women altogether, just to be “careful of that environment… do it in an open place”.

'I feel so much shame': inquiry reveals huge extent of workplace harassment Read more

Andrews was speaking on the International Women’s Day panel along with Labor shadow minister Linda Burney, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, AFLW head Nicole Livingstone, Kalgoorlie-Boulder Mining Innovation Hub director Sabina Shugg, and host Annabel Crabb.

A survey by the Australian Human Rights Commission in 2018 found that one-in-three people had been sexually harassed at work in the past five years, and a current national inquiry has heard that many cases involved a power imbalance between men and women and a workplace culture that looked the other way.

Other panelists said that mentoring and support from men was a necessary part of achieving change and greater equality in male-dominated industries.

“We need men on this journey,” Livingstone said.

Shugg said men should have no concerns about engaging in a professional mentor relationship with a woman, provided things were kept professional.

“You are not going off to a hotel room to do a mentoring session, you are off to a coffee shop or restaurant, and it’s pretty plain sailing,” she said. “I think we’re seeing more men wanting to mentor women because they can see that there are lessons that they can share with them.”

Scott Morrison wants women to rise but not solely at expense of others Read more

The discussion, which lacked its usual combative tone, began by examining the official International Women’s Day remarks made by prime minister Scott Morrison, who said on Friday that he wanted to see women rise but did not “want to see women rise only on the basis of others doing worse.”

Andrews said the comments were “clunky” but that Morrison’s respect for women had been demonstrated in his actions.

Burney said it was an “absolute own goal”.

“It’s really putting women down and not understanding what feminism is, and not understanding what equality is about,” she said.

Andrews, Hanson-Young and Burney also agreed on the need to establish a cross-party women’s caucus in parliament to support and promote female MPs, although disagreed on the need for quotas.

The very building of parliament house, they said, was set against them. Consider the chairs.

“I’m not a tall person but you’ve got these chairs that you are not allowed to change because they match the building, apparently,” Burney said. “Your feet don’t touch the ground. They are made for big men.”

#MeToo has been misrepresented as plot against men, says founder Read more

Hanson-Young said the culture in parliament was hostile toward women but was slowly changing.

“The building itself is a boy’s club, and we’re starting to break that down, and we do that by confronting the culture, naming it, calling it out and then supporting each other when we do,” she said.

“I think a formal women’s caucus is inevitable.”