PowherNY hosted Dismantling Sexual Harassment in Albany – Part Two:  Engaging Men in  Culture Change with an all-male panel to discuss how to create needed change in the workplace and how to engage men and male leaders to take responsibility to prevent and address sexual harassment. 

Key themes emerged about the importance of having safe spaces and the need to build a trusting environment for people to speak up and be heard; the need to examine and change power dynamics, and having women at the table. Panelists stressed the importance of starting young by working with boys, young men, families and communities to promote positive masculinity and our common humanity.

We thank our panel for an open and positive exploration of this topic. 

Watch the full event recording to hear from State Senator Andrew Gounardes, District 22 in Brooklyn; Quentin Walcott, Executive Director, Connect NYC; Gary Barker, Executive Director, PROMUNDO-Global, and Stanley Fritz, Public and Campaigns Director for Citizens Action of New York. Special thanks to our moderator Karen L. King, Commissioner of Public Advocacy and Executive Director, Erie County Commissioner on the Status of Women and Mary Luke, PowHer New York’s Vice President of Programming.

Speakers comments include:

Senator Gounardes spoke about the role of legislation and “the opportunity to set a different style of leadership, built on cooperation, and  setting an example for a culture of listening and respecting people and their opinions and work.” 

Walcott stressed the importance of prevention to change the culture of harassment. “Men need to take responsibility and speak up. Bystanders must be engaged to create the shift.”

Barker spoke about men’s role and being  part of the political solution – pressing political leaders to need to know that everyone , women and men, are looking at them for action. “Men need to have skin in the game of achieving gender equality and lives free of violence.“. 

Fritz shared “Patriarchy, sexism and gender- based violence  hurts men and women. (We) need  to shift to allyship with women.  Need to reimagine systems from hierarchy to collaboration. Create spaces for change. It’s  a marathon, not a sprint.”

King concluded with a call to action: “We need to stand up, speak up, be there, and display institutional courage. Speak the Truth!”

The first webinar and recap in our series can be found here.