Employer Series Webinar Recording: Pushing Back on Gender Equality Pushback
Gender equality work is moving forward, but the people leading it are running into a new wave of resistance they can’t ignore. This backlash shows up in boardrooms, media commentary, and policy debates and increasingly around topics like menopause and menstrual health at work.
The New Face of Gender Equality Backlash
Across Australia and globally, support for gender equality remains strong, yet visible pushback is growing louder. Large international surveys show that many people still believe women’s leadership improves organisations, but a vocal minority, especially younger men in some studies, feel that efforts have “gone too far” or now disadvantage men. In Australia, research has even found a small but worrying proportion who think feminism should be resisted with violence, highlighting how extreme rhetoric can spill into real harm. As Dr Elise Stephenson notes, “just as we’re getting closer to gender parity, we often see stagnation, pushback and even backsliding.”
At the same time, workplace data tells a different story: only a small fraction of workers oppose diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and most employees say their organisations are doing more on DEI than in previous years. This gap between broad public support and the intensity of backlash is exactly why HR and DEI leaders feel like they are doing twice the work just to stand still.
Naming Backlash So You Can Shift It
One of the most powerful tools available to leaders is simply the ability to name what they are experiencing. Backlash isn’t one thing; it appears through patterns you can learn to recognise. Common forms include denial (“we don’t have a problem here”), disavowal (“it’s not our responsibility; that’s for government to fix”), and inaction (endless delays, stalled approvals, or initiatives that never quite start).
It can also take more subtle shapes: appeasement (“leave it with me, I’ll raise it at the next board meeting”) without follow‑through, or appropriation and co‑option, where equality language is used to maintain traditional gender roles. Budget constraints, demands for “perfect” data, and fears of being the first mover in an industry are frequently deployed as convenient reasons to pause or dilute action. When HR and DEI leaders can label these responses as denial, appeasement, or inaction, it becomes easier to respond strategically rather than personally.
Practical Tactics for Responding in the Moment
Responding effectively means combining empathy with evidence and being ready for predictable arguments before they appear. One useful approach borrows from climate communication: present the fact, name the myth, explain the fallacy, then offer a clear response. For example, when someone says “isn’t supporting women just reverse discrimination?”, you can acknowledge the concern, point to evidence that targeted initiatives often improve conditions for everyone, and restate the goal as fairness and better performance for all staff.
Because different stakeholders are moved by different things, it helps to have several “cases” ready for any DEI initiative: the business case (innovation, retention, productivity), the people case (wellbeing, psychological safety, reduced conflict), and the values case (fairness, dignity, legal and social responsibility). Storytelling and lived experience, especially around menopause and menstrual health, can soften defensiveness and make statistics real, as many employees only grasp the impact of symptoms when they hear colleagues’ stories. Tone matters too; starting from shared goals and conceding the first point (“we both want high performance and safe workplaces…”) creates more room to negotiate the “how”. As Stephenson reminds us, “we’re here to fix systems, not women,” a reframing that keeps the focus on structures rather than individuals.
From Individual Conversations to System Change
While individual skill in handling difficult conversations is essential, sustainable progress depends on shifting systems, not just people. That means looking beyond “fix the women” approaches, like confidence workshops, to structural levers such as recruitment, promotion, leave, workload and health and safety frameworks. Successful gender equality projects tend to be focused on a small number of clear goals, aligned with wider external momentum, and backed by some form of accountability, whether that’s KPIs, funding, or reputational stakes.
In the menopause and menstrual health space, system change is already underway: inquiries, emerging standards, and workplace health and safety guidance are all signalling that these issues belong firmly in organisational risk and wellbeing strategies, not just in private lives. Employers who step up early, by investing in training, updating policies, and building psychologically safe cultures, are positioning themselves as employers of choice and seeing gains in retention, engagement and reputation. Backlash, in this context, is often a sign that entrenched power structures are finally being challenged and that meaningful progress is underway.
Turning Resistance into Constructive Engagement
For HR and DEI leaders, the goal is not to eliminate resistance but to transform it into constructive engagement. That starts with anticipating pushback, creating safe channels for feedback (including anonymous options), and using those moments as data about where fears, misconceptions or status threats sit in the system. Simple reframing tools, such as a four‑step process that sets context, builds interest, acknowledges concerns and then redirects towards a shared opportunity can turn “no” into “not yet, but here’s what I could support”.
No organisation can do everything at once, but every organisation can do something. Whether it’s piloting menopause training with a single business unit, introducing clear guidelines for psychological safety in difficult conversations, or partnering with external experts to benchmark progress, each concrete step both reduces the credibility of future pushback and builds a coalition for change. Over time, those small, steady actions backed by evidence, empathy and persistence are what push back on pushback and move workplaces closer to genuine equality.
“Take one brave pushback tip from Elise’s session and put it into practice in your very next hard conversation, because every time you use your voice, you make space for someone else’s.” Grace Molloy
Taking Action on Menopause and Menstrual Health
If you’re thinking “Where do we even start?”, download our menopause in the workplace toolkit. It gives you ready‑made language, policy prompts and simple workplace adjustments you can take back to your leaders and health and safety teams straight away.
Second, if you know your organisation is ready to move beyond ad‑hoc actions, we’d love you to join Menopause Friendly Australia. Membership gives you access to best‑practice resources, employer case studies and our accreditation pathway so you’re not reinventing the wheel on your own.
And third, please come along to our next employer series event, where we’ll go deeper on the new work health and safety Code and what it actually means in practice for providing period products and facilities in different types of workplaces. We’ll unpack what’s now expected of PCBUs, how to implement low‑cost, high‑impact changes, and give you example wording you can use with your WHS committees and executive teams.
Grace Molloy, CEO and Co-founder, Menopause Friendly Australia
Watch our Employer Series webinar recording from March 2026
Dr Elise Stephenson has kindly made her presentation available to download here.
Pushing Back on Gender Equality Pushback
Dr Elise Stephenson is Deputy Director of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at the Australian National University, founded and chaired by former prime minister Julia Gillard. A multi award‑winning gender equality researcher and entrepreneur, her work focuses on gender, sexuality and leadership in ‘frontier’ areas of international affairs, including space, AI, climate action, diplomacy, national security, intelligence and international representation across the Asia–Pacific.
Session focus
In this webinar Dr Elise Stephenson explores how leaders can respond when gender equality, DEI and feminist ideas are questioned, defunded or politicised, and gives participants tools to hold their nerve, stay evidence‑based and keep moving progress forward despite resistance.
Audience
This webinar is for senior leaders and change‑makers who are already invested in gender equality but are grappling with rising resistance and “DEI fatigue” in their organisations. This includes executive and senior leaders, HR and People & Culture directors, DEI and wellbeing leads, and influential managers from organisations that are striving to be employers of choice.
Learning objectives
By the end of the session, participants will be able to:
- Recognise common forms of backlash and “gender fatigue” showing up in organisations, media and politics.
- Explain what the data actually says about gender equality progress, and use it to counter common myths.
- Apply practical, context‑sensitive strategies to respond to pushback from colleagues, leaders or stakeholders without burning out.
- Identify at least one personal sphere of influence where they can “push back on the pushback” in a sustainable way.