The comeback of old white men – by Dr Daniel Dettling

Good times for big boys? With the re-election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, the archetype of traditional leadership culture is making a comeback: the old white man. In Germany, too, two older men are expected to rescue the centre-right parties CDU and FDP: 70-year-old Friedrich Merz and the newly elected Wolfgang Kubicki, who is four years older. Many fear a backlash — a form of masculinism that replaces diversity, inclusion and equality, and one that appears to resonate particularly with younger men.

Human resources professionals and executive recruiters are also reporting a renewed trend. Tougher leadership types, numbers-driven managers, restructuring specialists and revenue generators are back in demand. The era of employee-centred leadership based on mutual respect, they say, is over. But was it ever truly embraced? In many large companies, bro culture never really disappeared. “Diverse, open and inspiring” may have been the stated aspiration for (predominantly male) chief executives, but few made it a genuine leadership priority. Topics such as leadership culture, diversity and values were largely delegated to female HR executives and their departments.

Yet there are at least two reasons why the return of macho management and a leadership backlash is unlikely to define the future. First, today’s boards and supervisory bodies include more women, as well as people with diverse career paths and life experiences, enabling them to distinguish between authentic, consistent leadership and mere patriarchal posturing. Second, the backlash itself demonstrates just how successful mixed teams and women in leadership have already become. Women are steadily advancing in business and politics; more women than ever are becoming chief executives, board members and heads of government.

Every successful movement provokes a counter-movement. Yet despite Trump and the resurgence of new macho role models, gender equality will continue to progress. The so-called “gender war” has long since been decided. Women are now better educated than men, their unemployment rate is lower, their wages are rising faster, and they live longer. The financial crisis twenty years ago, and today’s turmoil in the automotive industry, demonstrate what becomes of sectors built on homogeneous leadership cultures, status symbols and entrenched privilege while remaining blind to change: they fade away, much like dinosaurs. The meteorite that struck 66 million years ago has now been replaced by the force of transformation. Change has no gender — it recognises only one direction: forwards, into the future.