Gender equality movement Fck The Cupcakes hosted an event called Yeah The Pies last week to engage men in discussions around gender equality at the Innocean office in Sydney.
FTC partnered with Paramount, Infinity Bakery, and Bloke Coaching for the event, which was hosted by MasterChef champion and mental health advocate Brent Draper and professional coach Iain Schmidt.
More than 60 men from the industry baked pies together and were encouraged to cook up real conversations. The bakers included Tony Hale (CEO Advertising Council Australia), whose baking was Innocean CEO and FTC founder Jasmin Bedir’s personal highlight, Peter Horgan (CEO OMG), Chris Freel (oOh! Media), Stephen Wright (TrinityP3), Kerry McCabe (founder, UnLtd), and Andrew Tuitahi (Hyundai director of marketing and product).
The event was closed with an after-party featuring pies and a larger-than-life FTC cupcake.
Bedir said the event was an attempt to start an ongoing fun and meaningful program that brings men into the room on the topic of gender equality.
“The feedback we got was incredible – which confirmed that we are on the right track. We cannot wait for the next Yeah The Pies session, which we are planning for winter,” she added.
FTC aims to engage what it has identified as the 30% of ‘the movable middle’ men in the Australian population who are surveyed as successful, educated, and likely exposed to new ideas through their children. FTC believes these men are most likely to change in response to its efforts.
Bedir previously said that FTC’s sentiment that International Women’s Day is meaningless if women continue just to talk to other women has struck a chord.
“But it is incredibly difficult to get men at scale engaged in the topic of gender equality, which was confirmed by the Gender Pay Gap data.”
She explained: “The ‘Yeah the Pies’ program will be a blueprint for organisations to engage men the right way so IWD 2025 is not again another room filled with women and cupcakes.”
See also: F*ck The Cupcakes launches Yeah the Pies to engage men post-IWD
