Because it’s high time that businessmen had a space to do their business without women around.
Face it. It’s pretty hard to be a bloke in business.
Thousands of years of dominating all social, political and commercial institutions can be really wearing. Sure you get paid more and get promoted faster and more often but all you hear about from women is blah-blah-sexism–pay gap–periods-blah.
Anyone who knows actually works in business knows that it’s the MEN who are being discriminated against.
What men need is a special club. For men who want to talk to men about manly things, like business and beer. Where they’re not disturbed by women and all their girly chit chat.
Enter Man Business. The networking club that business men need. It’s “the way men like to do business”
Who are they?
Well, on their website, they describe themselves as “a group of high quality business owners, business managers and business leaders to meet up once a month to enjoy an event styled for men.” (you know that things are high-quality when they put it on the label).
They’re also keen to point out that they are Good Men. Who just happen to be seeking to exclusively keep company with other Good Men.
But make no mistake – it’s not a boy’s club.
It’s a place where Good Men can be Good Men. Without being troubled by women (or apostrophes, it seems).
So what is is like? According to their website, it’s a little like Fight Club.
Just as a reminder, this is what Fight Club looks like:
According to their Facebook page, this is what Man Business event looks like:
Yes. We know. The similarities are uncanny. THEY LOOK EXACTLY THE SAME.
So why is it that Man Business feel they need to cut women out of their networking events?
Well, it’s not immediately clear from their website exactly why women are not allowed at Men Business. Or indeed what it is so distressing, disappointing or damaging about the presence of women in business that has necessitated the formation of a group that excludes them.
But Mumbrella took a screen shot of a post that no longer appears on the Man Business Facebook page which sheds some light on why they think women are ruining business networking:
It reads: “We are humble men, we find women flirting with us at networking events to get our business uncomfortable and a conflict with our values. We enjoy hanging out with other guys without the distraction of flirting women who blur lines between business and social. Guys just get it and make it easy to do”.
Those pesky women. Always with their flirtin’, blurrin’ those lines, not gettin’ it, makin’ it hard for men.
I mean, women would absolutely have destroyed the manly, business vibe of this event:
So if you’ve got a business which enjoys excluding women (either as colleagues, employees or presumably customers), Man Business events are held at Village Co-working Space in North Sydney and the events are advertised on Village Australia’s website (Village Australia also own the Man Business URL).
Alternatively, people who don’t enjoy excluding women from their workplaces or customer lists might consider giving these particular businessmen (and the organisations that support them) a wide berth.
Top Comments
Great article, and I spotted maybe a hint of sarcasm. I admin these 'gender-only' groups, such as the local Business Womens Group here on the Sunshine Coast, tend to almost go out of their way to uncomfortably exclude the opposite gender like they don't even exist. The fact that Telstra and other large corporations supports these kind of initiatives and even offer special awards shows how backward society still is towards gender segregation. It's time to grow up Australia. There is room in business for equality these days. I feel sorry for anyone that feels they can't play ball with the other team. You obviously aren't cut out for business if this is you.
So. NO women ever 'flirt' at networking events??? I have several really good female friends who truly don't know they're doing it (and I can add them to the ones who do). Leaning towards someone, dropping the chin, tilting the head, looking up at his face through their eyelashes. It's so automatic they really don't know they do it. I've watched the body language of the guys who it makes uncomfortable. Do the flip thing. A male colleague ogling, or dropping is voice and giving you his attention to the exclusion of others in the group, or being alpha-male overbearing and talking over the top of you. You'd avoid those guys and might even find yourself in an "all chicks" [ugh! I'm not a chick and never was] networking group where you don't have to deal with folks who try to blur the boundaries....
I turn my head sometimes because I find it hard to hear if there is a lot of background noise. Sometimes I have to move my neck to adjust it so that I am more comfortable. Sometimes I flick the hair from the front of my shoulder because there are random strands touching the side of my face and it annoys or distracts me. Sometimes I am listening so intently that I am thinking and don't even notice what I'm looking at. Sometimes people aren't flirting when someone thinks they are.....
So I'm the opposite. Rather than thinking someone is flirting with me, it has to be really obvious, not things that can be explained by other things.
I'm not talking about random individual actions but a whole pattern that shrieks "flirt" to both the men and women in the area. Think that coy way that Princess Diana had of looking up through her lashes at times. Yes there are simple things that can be over-interpreted, and then there are women who flirt automatically.