Workplace equality backlash prompts call to include men

Gender-equal workplace policies are being made a scapegoat, advocates have told a women's summit. (Lukas Coch/AAP PHOTOS)

Strides towards gender equality could be at risk if men are not included in the conversation, with leaders urging workplaces to stay the course on diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Paralympians, company founders and youth advocates are speaking at a leadership summit held by workplace advocacy group Future Women covering topics ranging from business and finance to wellbeing and culture.

The world is witnessing women's rights being rolled back amid a rise of anti-feminist rhetoric and politicians, Future Women deputy managing director Jamila Rizvi told the summit audience in her speech on Tuesday.

Gender-equal workplace policies have become a "convenient scapegoat" for broader economic anxieties and young men are being sold a myth that feminism is the reason they feel left out or career plans are drifting away, she said.

Jamila Rizvi says men are being sold the myth that feminism is the reason they are feeling left out. (Natasha Morello/AAP PHOTOS)

This rhetoric is no longer held by an "unrepresentative handful" but spreading across the country mostly in young men, requiring a new conversation that includes them.

"Gender equality cannot keep being only about women," she said. 

"Having an honest gender equality conversation requires us to recognise how the system is also failing men and we need to take the challenges they face, particularly boys and younger men, seriously."

Ms Rizvi urged workplace leaders not to walk away from gender equality projects, as is happening in the US with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives under President Donald Trump's instruction.

Having a society where women are equal and able to fulfil their potential also benefits men, families and workplaces, Assistant Minister for Women Kate Thwaites told the summit.

A majority of women MPs in the federal Labor party has changed the conversation, she said, along with the equal number of men and women in cabinet.

"Women's policy isn't something that you just tack on at the end of a cabinet meeting agenda ... it's not a nice-to-have if you've got time left over or you've got a bit of spare change in the budget," she said.

"These things are central to everything we do."