What is Gender Bias?
Gender bias refers to the unequal treatment of individuals based on their gender. This can manifest in various forms, ranging from unequal pay and promotion opportunities to stereotypical assumptions and gender-based harassment.
Most people think gender biases affect only women, which manifest in pay gaps. It's actually much more than that. Gender biases can permeate workplace culture and decision-making processes for all genders and people who are gender fluid. Both men and women can allow their biases to have a negative impact on the working environment for others.
Gender biases can have a significant impact on an individual's career progression and overall job satisfaction, creating a workplace environment that can feel unwelcoming. This can lead to losing critical talent and can drive low morale and low employee engagement.
We wrote this blog to help our readers address gender biases in the workplace to create an equitable work environment for all employees. Where to start? Below we outline some types of gender biases to watch out for, and a few suggestions on how to remedy.
Hello, World!
3 Types of Unconscious Gender Biases
Gender biases are not always overt. Oftentimes, they are subtle and can even stem from “good” intentions, sometimes referred to as ‘benevolent sexism. One of the first steps in overcoming bias in the workplace is to be aware of some of the different types that can commonly occur.
1. Performance Bias
Performance bias is when someone is not considered for a job position or promotion simply because of their gender. This bias has been shown to most heavily impact women, who are often passed over for promotions despite having the same or better qualifications and experience than men.
A study from MIT Sloan Associate Professor, Danielle Li, finds that female employees are less likely to be promoted than their male counterparts, despite outperforming them and being less likely to quit. Her research points to one reason why:
On average, women received higher performance ratings than male employees, but received 8.3% lower ratings for potential than men. The result was that female employees on average were 14% less likely to be promoted than their male colleagues.
The most depressing result Li found was that “women have to hit a higher threshold of future performance in order to justify the same potential score as men.”
2. Maternal/Caretaker Bias
Maternal/caretaker bias refers to discrimination and prejudice against working mothers or caretakers. This can include assumptions about a caretaker’s commitment to their job or ability to perform their role in the workplace effectively because of their role as a mother or caretaker and the need for flexible work arrangements or parental leave.
A meta-analysis of studies conducted by the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University showed that mothers are often perceived as less competent and committed than non-mothers.
Maternal/caretaker biases occur when other people:
- Assume working mothers/caretakers have diminished time and commitment due to their responsibilities inside the home.
- Assume working mothers are less eager to take on greater challenges and pass them over for assignments or career advancements.
- Say things like, "We didn't want you to have to choose between [opportunity] and your family time” - an example of benevolent sexism.
3. Gender-Biased Language
Gender-biased language is one of the few hard-to-detect biases because it occurs in our daily conversations. A common example is using the term “guys” to address a group of people who aren’t just male. Using guys as a catch-all term can be interpreted as exclusionary or that the male gender is the norm or default.
The Language of Gender Bias in Performance Reviews by Stanford Business Graduate School found that women's feedback contains nearly twice as much nurturing language like 'helpful', 'supportive', or ‘showing warmth’. Men are more often praised for ‘getting the job done’, ‘taking charge’, and ‘being independent’.
Women are 2.5 times more likely to be told that they're communicating too aggressively but on the flip side, men are 7 times more likely to receive feedback that their communication style is too 'soft'. It goes both ways, and society tends to call individuals out for going against gendered expectations and stereotypes.
Here’s how to give feedback and praise without using gender-biased language.
4 Ways to Bridge Gender Biases
1. Go Blind for Resume Reviews
When hiring, companies need to level the playing field by focusing on the candidate’s qualifications, not demographics.
A simple way to achieve this is to use software programs that blind the name and demographics early on in the interview process. The fact is that Marie and Razia do not get the same number of callbacks as Greg and Jack, especially in male-dominated fields.
A great demonstration of this is the Heidi Roizen Harvard Case Study, which showed that when Heidi and Howard possessed the same qualifications and achievements (their resumes were intentionally identical), people tended to assess Howard more favorably than Heidi on a number of variables.
2. Reward the 'How' as Much as the 'What'
It's important to recognize and value not just the end result, but also the approach and behaviors demonstrated in achieving those results. This approach of rewarding the 'how' equally with the 'what' promotes inclusive, equitable, and values-driven behavior.
Here's an example of recognizing both the ‘what' and the ‘how':
When promoting someone, consider how the individual achieved the results rather than looking only at the results achieved. Take a close look at their behaviors and ask yourself the following questions:
- How do they treat their coworkers
- What kind of team player they are
- What kind of leadership qualities they demonstrate
- Does this individual exemplify the behaviors of the culture you are proud to have built
- Do they role-model the company values
This can help create a more inclusive work environment in which everyone is rewarded equitably for the whole picture.
3. Keep People Managers Accountable
Without accountability, DE&I efforts are "futile", according to Evelyn R. Carter, a social psychologist on detecting and discussing racial bias. "Any plans or policies are only as good as the people responsible for carrying them out. If those people don’t understand what problem new processes or policies are solving, they won’t understand their role in bringing those plans to life," Evelyn argues.
So what can leaders do to keep their people managers accountable for upholding a culture that’s welcoming to all genders?
Justin Michael Williams, author and transformational speaker, who has become a pioneering voice for diversity and inclusion across the US talk about 2 key things to help managers be accountable:
i. Be specific about the diversity (in this case, gender diversity) that you’re hoping to hit
In what demographics do you want diversity? What percentage benchmarks are you trying to hit and in what kind of roles? Also, what is the specific environment that you’re trying to create for people of all genders to feel included? Once managers are clear on this they know where they are headed.
ii. Use ‘calling forward’ in conversations to hold people accountable when they miss-communicate
Justin Michael Williams coined this term, ‘calling forward’ to be distinctly different from ‘calling out' (which people typically do in a cancel culture) or ‘calling in’ (which is more commonly preferred).
‘Calling out’ is naming an infraction or a wrong that somebody did publicly. ‘Calling in’ is when you talk about the infraction privately. Both of these methods typically lead to feelings of guilt, shame, and blame from the conversation. Science has proven that guilt, shame, and blame shuts down the centers of the brain that are responsible for learning and growth. He says “If you approach somebody with shame, blame or guilt, it eliminates their opportunity for connection, their opportunity to listen.”
Instead, Justin Michael Williams suggests to 'call forward'. He says “Calling forward is an invitation to the future we're committed to building inside of our organizations.” When you call someone forward you have a conversation about what you noticed about when and how they miscommunicated, and then you invite them forward to support the vision the team has for the inclusive environment.
When you have this kind of conversation you’ll find that people understand and empathize with what they said or did wrong and don’t feel judged in the process.
4. Integrate Management Development Programs with DE&I values
Oftentimes management development programs and DE&I initiatives are run separately. It makes sense! Most companies are still early on their DEI journey and there is a good amount of level-setting and foundational learning that needs to happen across employees before more sophisticated and nuanced learning can be ventured.
That said, there are simple opportunities to integrate DEI into Development Programs that promote and support DEI behaviors as just how work gets done.
For example, instead of teaching how to run effective meetings or performance reviews, consider teaching how to run effective team meetings and performance reviews inclusive of equitable behaviors.
Whether it's effective 1:1s, delivering feedback, giving praise, managing change, etc., each of these management skills should have your DEI values integrated in the approach.
Final Words
Gender bias is an insidious problem that can have far-reaching implications for individuals and organizations and we know we all have work to do. How does this show up for you? What are some areas where societal norms creep into your language or treatment of other genders in your workplace?
Just to summarize, the types of gender biases you can watch out for are:
- Performance bias
- Maternal/caretaker bias
- Gender-biased language
To bridge the gender bias, we encourage you to:
- Go blind on resume reviews. Look at qualifications and experiences rather than names and demographics.
- Measure performance based on how the result is achieved, not just what is achieved.
- Keep people managers accountable
- Integrate your management development programs with your DEI values
By implementing these strategies, you can help reduce unconscious gender biases and create a workplace culture based on fairness, respect, and empathy.
Lastly, I'd like to leave you with a short but powerful lesson about biases and privilege which has really stuck with me.
