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A 2023 New Yorker article reported, “… women earn roughly three-fifths of all bachelor’s and mas ter’s degrees awarded. They are the majority of current medical and law students. And they’ve made extraordi nary gains in subjects where they had once been highly underrepresented; they now constitute a third of current graduates in STEM fields and more than forty percent of students in busi ness schools.” 10 At the end of 2023, a Fortune study found only 44% of young college students were men. 11 How, then, should Christian men and women in leadership positions respond to this changing, confusing, cultural, and workplace landscape? Christians can only react by model ing and encouraging the servant leadership of Jesus Christ, who, while clearly male, set a standard for His followers where there was “neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” I need to view my workers by vigorously filtering my perceptions through Scripture, being attentive to any implicit bias toward or against males or females, and remembering God, who created the genders, engages neither in partiality nor favoritism (Deuteronomy 16:19 and Romans 2:11). In this way, we pro claim the wisdom of God’s sexual design and re claim biblical norms in this mission field known as work. ✠

there is an implicit bias that women are ‘intellectually inferior to men.’ From two experiments with more than 1,800 participants of both gen ders across more than 30 disciplines, the researchers found that when a job requires someone of intellect, women had 25.3 percent lower probability of being appointed. Genius, brilliance and innate intellectuality are seen as ‘masculine’ traits, and if a discipline is perceived to require this, then women are under-represented.” 6 The workplace landscape has changed, is changing, and will continue to change. In 2022, women comprised 58.4% of the workforce but only 35% of senior leadership positions. 7 However, a 2024 Zippia. com study shows that 50.2% of lead ers at all levels are women. 8 An October 2024 Pew Research report stated, “The status of men in American society has been at the center of recent national political conversations. Some people have spoken out about what they perceive to be attacks on traditional manhood, while others have warned about what they see as ‘toxic masculinity.’ More broadly, many have expressed concern about how men are doing socially and economically.” 9

Americans these questions: ‘What traits does society value most in men and in women? What traits does society say men and women should not have?’ The respondents answered with more than 1,500 unique words describing traits that they thought society does and doesn’t value for each gender.” “Powerful” was used to describe men in a positive way (67%) but in a negative way to describe women (92%). “Honest” was used to describe men twice as often as women. “Beautiful” was only used for women, while “provider” was only used for men…. They also saw “leadership” and “ambition” as traits that society values more in men than in women, while “compassion” and “caring” were seen as positive traits for women but more negatively for men, thereby revealing the widespread societal culture of “toxic masculinity.” 5 Societal norms have been at war with biblical norms for millennia; cur rent misperceptions about masculinity, in general, and biblical masculinity, in particular, are no different. Toxic masculinity has been allowed to define biblical masculinity falsely. Sadly, toxic masculinity still has a presence in the American workplace. “A study conducted recently… showed that

GREGG JANTZ, PH.D., is the founder of The Center • A Place of HOPE (www.aplaceofhope. com), a healthcare facility in Edmonds, Washington,

which emphasizes whole-person care, addressing the emotional, relational, physical, and spiritual aspects of recovery. He is the author of multiple books, including his latest, Triumph Over Trauma , and Here Today, Ghosted Tomorrow . Dr. Jantz is a sought after speaker in person, on television, and radio (www.drgregoryjantz.com).

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christian counseling today VOL. 28 NO. 1