When women participate in the economy, in peace-making and peace-keeping, we all benefit. Giving women and girls a fighting chance isn’t a nice thing to do, it’s a core imperative for every society…This truly is the unfinished business of the 21st century, and it is the work we are called to do.

Here is the crux: Why lean into a system that is fundamentally broken? By pushing ourselves to succeed within this patriarchal world that has been created without our participation, aren’t we upholding its pillars of inequality?…Yet it’s important that we not use our angst and frustration with the status quo to shoot the messenger…If you feel Lean In excludes a certain segment of the female population, it has at least contributed to a national and international dialogue reminding us how vast the problem really is. While we as a gender need to push harder and further to ensure our own personal success, we need to tackle the social, political and economic barriers that hinder that success — however subtle — as a group, as well as individually. We need to look at the big picture. And, we aren’t going to make much progress if men aren’t taking a look as well.

We as men must be responsible for recognizing that being violent against women doesn’t make you a man, and for understanding our privilege in this rape culture of ours. And as much as we need to welcome women as teachers in this respect, we fellas need to make this our mission, too. In almost every instance, it’s our hand striking women, it’s our guns pointed at them, it’s our bodies violating theirs. Women can fight to end domestic violence, but the burden to end it needs to be on men. Also, we can’t forget that men not only have to not rape, but must be a part of defusing the culture that makes this kind of behavior permissible. Speak up when you see street harassment…Allies are not born, they are made