First it was mechanisation threatening our jobs, then AI and now this: the Great Feminisation is taking over the workplace. Well, that’s according to American journalist Helen Andrews, who popularised this thesis in a speech to the National Conservatism conference in Washington DC.

The idea is that too many women in the workplace, and in positions of power, has led to the dominance of stereotypical feminine values, to the detriment of everyone. Girly things like conflict resolution rather than manly plain speaking, fussy HR departments, or a lack of healthy aggressive competition, have all created an imbalance in the workplace and in the world, suppressing stereotypical masculine values. Andrews fears for her sons and their future in the feminised world that she believes threatens us all.

The thesis makes two fundamental errors. First, stereotypes attached to femininity don’t represent all women, any more than stereotypes about masculinity define all men. Second, nobody needs a feminised world, whatever that nonsense even means, but we all need a feminist world. There’s a big difference.

For centuries, it was policy to keep women out of education and most professions, although women have, of course, always worked – in agriculture, in factories, or in service to rich people. Much of this was not in the formal economy, it was cash in hand. Work like childcare, washing or sewing was done at home, rather than in the public sphere. Yet work has always been gendered as masculine, because formal, paid employment outside the home has been seen as the preserve of men. So work comes to define masculinity, and therefore men, being viewed as core to men’s identity.

It is not only conservatives making these kinds of arguments. Scott Galloway, an American academic and author of a much-discussed new book, Notes on Being a Man, has

© The Guardian