Why It’s Time to Rethink Male Allies and Make Inclusion Everyone’s Responsibility

Is it time to rethink male allies and make Inclusion everyone’s responsibility?

Years ago, the energy industry introduced safety officers – people responsible for keeping others safe.

But meaningful progress only happened when safety stopped being a specialist’s job and became part of everyone’s day-to-day behaviour.

Safety culture only took root when it became a shared responsibility, not something you “volunteer” for.

I think Inclusion is in exactly the same place.

We ask for male allies – volunteers who support, champion, and amplify others. And allies have done valuable work. They’ve opened doors, challenged norms and supported people who’ve had to work harder to be heard by coaching and mentoring them to succeed in the current culture.

But here’s the challenge:
Why is Inclusion something you sign up for?
Why do we treat it as optional when it’s Inclusion – not Diversity or Equity – that unlocks the real business benefit?

Diversity is about representation.
Equity is about fairness.

But Inclusion is what determines whether people stay, perform, grow, innovate and lead.

It’s Inclusion that turns diverse teams into high-performing teams.

And if Inclusion is where the value lies, we can’t rely on a handful of volunteers to deliver it.

Just as safety became everyone’s day job, Inclusion needs to become a core part of how we work:

• How we run meetings.
• How we allocate opportunities.
• Who we sponsor.
• How we challenge behaviour.
• How we create psychological safety.
• How we make people feel valued, every single day.

Allies still matter. They always will.

But maybe the next step is bigger:

Moving from “allyship as volunteering” to “inclusion as responsibility.”
For all of us.

Because that’s where the real business benefit lies and how we can all succeed and flourish – by being ourselves.