Business Still Rewards Masculinity. It's Time to Ask Why.

Businesses, especially big corporations and tech companies, often reward masculine traits like aggression, risk-taking and dominance, even if most people don’t take note of it on the daily. This can create a competitive workplace environment and even turn toxic at times. This has downsides for everyone, not just those who don’t fit the usual “alpha male” image.

Many scholars argue that numerous workplaces operate under a so called masculinity contest culture (MCC), a contest in which individuals feel pressure to prove their masculinity by showing toughness, working long hours, competitiveness, and a refusal to show any type of vulnerability or weakness. In such environments, success becomes aligned, not with just competence or collaboration, but primarily with outperforming colleagues on criteria defined by traditional masculine norms.

Because of that, these cultures often encourage a narrow definition of what acceptable behaviour is. For example, discouraging empathy, emotional honesty, or simply work-life balance, are traits that are socially coded as feminine. When organisations implicitly or explicitly reward these masculinity-coded behaviours, they discourage diversity in personality types and leadership styles.

This doesn't just harm people who don't "fit the mould", according to research, MCC are associated with negative outcomes for all workers. These include higher stress, burnout, lower organisational commitment, poor psychological safety, higher turnover, and reduced collaboration and innovation in the company.

These issues are not random, they come from deeper structures of power that have shaped workplaces since the dawn of time.

Organisations are sites of men’s power and masculinities, and workplace issues such as organisational control, decision-making, remuneration, and culture often reflect and reinforce masculine material-discursive practices.
-Jeff Hearn (2013)

In other words, the modern workplace wasn't designed to be neutral. It was built around certain masculine expectations which are still present today, even if people don't always notice them.

This is also why many companies fall into what Berdahl and Cooper (2018) call the masculinity contest culture pattern, where employees feel like they constantly have to prove themselves, push harder, work longer, and never show that they are struggling. These norms are then used to determine who is committed or who is "leader material". The Harvard Business Review (2022) calls these the masculine defaults of the workplace, because they quietly shape decisions about promotions, performance and everyday behaviour. The problem is that these tend to reward people that fit in the stereotype, while not leaving space for any other leadership style.

Another major problem is that the MCC can also reinforce double standards. For example, if a man is assertive or dominant, it is often seen as confidence, but when a woman behaves in the same way, it is usually judged negatively.

When I am assertive, I'm a bitch. When a man is assertive, he's a boss.
-Nicki Minaj

This line from one of Nicki Minaj songs captures perfectly how the same behaviours can be interpreted differently depending on the gender and shows how this concept is reflected, even in pop-culture. SHRM (2024) points out that toxic masculinity in workplace culture can create environments where competitiveness becomes hostility and where being vulnerable and asking for help is a sign of being weak. Over time, these patterns lead to teams that do not communicate well, employees are scared to speak up, and leaders focus more on the image, rather than efficiency.

Recently, this issues became even more visible in public debates about "masculine energy" in leadership. For instance, Inclusion Geeks (2025), and Fortune (2025), as well as many others, criticised Mark Zuckerberg’s comments about workplaces needing to “man up,” arguing that this kind of thinking reinforces exactly the type of harmful expectations that MCC research warns about. The Conversation (2025) also pointed out how promoting tougher, more aggressive workplace norms actually damages the employee's wellbeing across industries. What these critiques show is that many people are aware that workplace masculinity is not just about individual behaviour, but about the norms companies should value and follow.

It's also important to remember that the MCC harms men as well. Many men feel pressured to act in ways that aren't natural to them, like pretending that they are always confident, never tired, and never unsure. Power to Persuade (2021) explains that the masculinity contest cultures create environments where even men are afraid to show vulnerability, because they fear being judged as less competent. This then leads to stress, isolation, and burnout. So, instead of helping men succeed, these cultures end up trapping them in a role that demands constant toughness.

Culture Amp (2025) argues that workplaces need to rethink masculinity altogether if they want to create a more sustainable work culture. They emphasise on the fact that good leadership is not about fitting in a masculine ideal, but instead having a balance of different qualities like empathy, communication, collaboration, and the ability to build trust in a team. These traits are often seen as feminine, but research shows they are essential for effective organisations. By recognising this, companies can shift away from rigid gender expectations and create environments where more people can thrive.

A feminist perspective is really useful here, as it helps to see how gendered expectations are built into everyday work practices. Feminism doesn’t say that traditionally masculine traits like decisiveness or confidence are bad; it simply shows that workplaces become unequal when those traits are the only ones that are rewarded. It also points out that people of all gender identities can show both masculine and feminine traits and that organisations benefit when they value a wider range of strengths.

Overall, expanding our understanding of leadership and success in business is not just about gender equality, instead it’s about creating a healthier, more effective workplace. By challenging masculine defaults, recognising harmful norms, and valuing a wider range of human traits, organisations can finally move towards cultures where everyone has the chance to perform at their best. This benefits not only individuals, but also the companies themselves, since more inclusive, collaborative, and psychologically safe environments tend to produce better results.

For people who are interested in deepening their knowledge on this topic, I recommend listening to TED Business’s podcast episode “A New Vision of Healthy Masculinity” with Davonte Green.