What do Men in the CDFI Industry Think?
As we continue to discuss the findings from FUND Community Institute’s study, Perception versus Reality: Women and Change in the CDFI Industry (available at www.fundci.org), one of the most common questions that we get is if the perceptions of men were different than those of women. The answer is that male survey respondents had a more positive view of the state of gender issues in the CDFI industry. Specifically men were:
- 15% more likely than women to agree that all genders are valued equally in their organization.
- 17% more likely than women to agree that their organization has policies to encourage inclusivity and diversity.
- 24% more likely than women to agree women are equally represented as leaders of CDFIs.
- 26% more likely than women to agree that there are resources for women to lead and succeed in the industry.
- 17% less likely than women to disagree that all genders are compensated the same for the same work.
One interesting finding is that 79% of male survey respondents felt women are viewed as leaders in the CDFI industry compared with 65% of all survey respondents. This finding could be a strong indicator that men view women as leaders in the industry and / or that they may be unaware of unconscious gender bias.
Men were almost twice as likely at 80% to strongly agree that based on their race or ethnicity, women of color face additional challenges compared to white women in the CDFI industry (compared to 43% of all survey respondents).
Some findings indicate that although there may be areas of agreement and substantial overlap in male and female views of the role of women in the industry, there is definitely still room for discussion and understanding between the genders. This is evidenced in that while 2% of all survey respondents agreed that men face more significant barriers to advancement in the CDFI industry, 17% of male respondents agreed with this statement indicating that some men feel they face their own barriers in the industry.
Next month we will be back with information on the profile of the female survey respondents including information on which industries they hail from, whether location or age or other factors make a difference in opinions, etc. In the meantime, we would love to hear from you about what you think about this data?