The TikTok trends keep coming, HR beware!
After last week’s “loud budgeting” and “quit tokking” – not to mention “lazy girl jobs”, whatever they are – we now have “micro-feminism” – apparently a TikTok trend “empowering women and fighting gender inequality in tiny steps”.
And it sounds like one that may keep some of the more unreconstructed males in the office on their toes.
HR website People Managing People has kindly contacted us to tell us that this new trend is “all about the small changes people can make, particularly in the workplace, to fight gender inequality”.
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It says that it has witnessed a huge splurge of over 720,000 posts with the hashtag #microfeminism. This has generated more than a billion views.
The micro-feminism movement involves implementing small acts that “make men pissed off” according to one TikTok creator, Katie Wood (Personnel Today would like to apologise for any word that may have offended you).
For example, if somebody at her job says “I have to talk to the board”, she will always reply with, “let me know what she says. Always she, by default.”
“Saying Ms instead of Miss or Mrs, because it doesn’t mean you’re married or un-married. If I’m saying first names, like Jane and John, I will say Jane first instead of John.”
This may not appear to represent Emmeline Pankhurst levels of feminist activism but Personnel Today believes it is through incremental change that progress is made.
Perhaps such rebellious movements are a way of countering the current anti-woke backlash under way”
People Managing People asked Ruth Kudzi, a psychology and neuroscience expert why women still experience gender inequality in the workplace in 2024, who says “we know that there are biases that people hold towards particular behaviours that can make it easier for men to get ahead than woman.
“The structures within particular organisations don’t help. There are less role models in senior positions, so women may feel less confident to go for promotions and many of the decision makers still tend to be men.”
David Rice at People Managing People is all in favour of the new trend: “There is still a huge gender disparity in the workplace,” as proven by the gender pay gap at many firms, he says.
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Perhaps such rebellious movements are a way of countering the current anti-woke backlash under way. He says: “Without businesses owning up to these huge discrepancies, we still don’t know the full face of the problem. These micro-feminism tactics highlight why DEI programs are so important, and it’s incredibly disappointing to see major corporations like Google and Meta making cuts in this area.”
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