How ‘old guys’ view the #MeToo movement

I’m one of the old guys, born in 1947 and a witness to the sexual revolution of the ’60s and ’70s, which coincided with the arrival of the birthcontrol pill and a generational shift through which female participation in the workforce more than doubled from 1960 to 1980.

The macho culture that permeated much of the business world in the ’60s was a hangover from the Second World War and the masculine organizational dynamics of most of the 20th century: lots of booze, cigarettes, and women in largely subservient positions. Secretaries, filing clerks, waitresses, nurses, dental assistants.

In the ’70s, it wasn’t unusual for a drive-home show on a popular radio station to have listeners call in with the punch lines of their favourite joke — and find most of the content was about sex. Around that time, it was not unusual to see a playboy calendar on a guy’s desk.

It’s not just a coincidence that so many of the men under the spotlight for alleged abuse come from my generation.

But it would be a mistake to characterize us as insensitive to the fundamental change in gender relations now underway. More than any of the demographic groups analyzed in our new study, older men are the most likely to see the #MeToo movement as sparking a new era in gender relations at work. The vast majority agree that women should come forward to speak about their experiences. They also firmly believe that men must take responsibility for their actions, and that the changes associated with the #MeToo movement are long overdue.

When asked to rate a long list of possible activities in the workplace as acceptable or unacceptable, these men are the most conservative, choosing “unacceptable” more than any other group to describe many of those actions. Some of this may simply be a consequence of a perceived need for caution, since older men are the most likely to see changes as happening too quickly and feel that a lot of ambiguity remains about what is acceptable and unacceptable. Finding it harder than younger men to draw the line, they are most likely to see many activities as unacceptable.

But when it comes to matters of elementary justice, the views of men in general, and especially older men, stand in sharp contrast to those of millennial women.

A clear majority of the latter, though sympathetic to the risk of ruining careers because of a lack of due process, go on to express majority agreement with the idea that “no one has the right to question women’s stories.” This concept of blind acceptance is a major point of division for all men — especially the baby boomers. Seventy per cent of older men disagree, in some case vehemently, with younger women on this critical point of evidence-based justice.

A fascinating element of #MeToo is that unlike many other social issues, it is truly a family affair. Chances are that a millennial woman’s father is a baby boomer. This may partly explain the full-throated support of these old guys for most of the arguments put forward by the #MeToo movement. But when Toronto’s Sarah Thompson makes claims about the behaviour of TVO journalist Steve Paikin, most old guys will be insisting on evidence to back the accusations. Their daughters may be more likely to credit Thompson just because she came forward.

This is making — and will continue to make — for heated debates whenever extended families gather in Canada.