The past few years have featured some heavy-handed attempts to police interactions between the two sexes in the office. A natural reaction to definite sexism and mild harassment, the good intentions have resulted in worse outcomes.

Sheryl Sandberg has served as a figurehead for the women’s leadership movement, so perhaps her research should highlight some of the problems with the rhetoric surrounding the noble attempt to get females in higher positions within companies. In a 2020 survey by Sandberg and Katrina Pritchard, 60% of men confessed to being uncomfortable participating in a work activity with a female coworker - 32% higher than one year earlier.

Whoops.

A knee-jerk reaction to this from self-avowed feminists would be that men are being ridiculous because the number of false accusations is too low to be a serious concern. The response to this is obvious: if there were a tiny possibility that you could lose your career and have your reputation ruined, it’s worth avoiding. Mentors are doing other people a favour - withholding aid because of a genuine desire to have a job next week is a rational decision. On top of the severe risk, even a low probability is significant if a manager has a long career mentoring many women.

Feminists aren’t going to be able to force people to go above and beyond when they have genuine reasons to fear for their jobs. If they are awakening to the mess they’ve created, there’s a relatively simple solution: stop frightening people. Ease mentors’ minds by removing the real possibility that a misunderstanding could destroy their livelihood.