Author: sarah@all-about-talent.net

Over the past months, I have been researching the topic of unconscious bias at work, and in particular how unconscious biases affect women at work. Given it is International Women’s Day today, I thought it might be appropriate to share some of the key ideas I have come across so far.

The findings are astounding! Until I delved into the subject, I had no idea how subtle, and yet how devastating some of the effects of our unconscious biases can be on female career progression. For example, a recent article in Forbes outlined how unconscious bias is undermining Hillary Clinton’s attempt to become the first female president of the United States.

But let’s start at the beginning. Unconscious bias is a topic that is gaining more visibility across the globe as more and more companies discover the value of a diverse workforce, and even more so the value of a diverse boardroom. For example, a Danish study (Smith et al., 2006) demonstrated that companies with a higher number of highly qualified women in top management positions were, on average, more successful than those without. Various other studies demonstrate similar effects.

But where does unconscious bias fit into the picture, and why is it a problem? Well, in order to process the flood of information that assaults our senses every day, unconscious biases and stereotypes help us filter the incoming information. They help us make quick decisions and, a lot of the time, are useful tools to assist us in making sense of the world. Our unconscious biases are a result of culture, upbringing, experience, environment etc. and are very deeply ingrained in us.

At times however, these processes can lead to unhelpful judgments and decisions about people around us, and there are several biases that can prevent women from receiving the same opportunities as men at work. They can lead us to judge women in a more negative way than their male counterparts in terms of performance expectations.

So what are the most prevalent types of bias that can have an adverse effect on female career progression?

Performance attribution bias – in other words: how you explain success and failure. Essentially, we provide different reasons for male versus female success. Males’ success is explained by their innate ability to perform. Females’ success is generally explained by external factors – they had a good team, they were lucky, they worked hard – but not by their innate abilities. As a result, they get less credit for their successes.

Conversely, male failure is assumed to be the results of external factors – a stroke of bad luck, or perhaps lack of preparation. But guess what – female failure is assumed to be linked to a lack of ability. Among other things, this leads to female work being more closely scrutinized and women’s mistakes being viewed more negatively than a man’s errors.

Unsurprisingly, this also affects how women perceive themselves. Too often they suffer from “Impostor Syndrome”, believing they are not really as good at what they do as their position would suggest, and that they will eventually be “found out”. How self-limiting is that?

The attribution bias can explain an effect that can impact the selection rate of female candidates. Studies have shown that recruiters are more likely to pick a CV with a male name than a female name, even when the content is exactly the same. This is quite likely to be linked to how we explain male and female success and what beliefs we have regarding their long-term performance. Assume you need to pick a candidate for an important role. Do you hire or promote the one you think has innate talent, or the one who has to work at it or you believe got lucky?

The likeability bias causes us to only consider a woman an effective leader if she is not only competent, but also likeable. Men don’t appear to have that problem. On explanation is that typical female stereotypes of nurturing, friendly and supportive women prevail – and when a woman does not conform to the stereotypes she is not liked, and then not considered a good leader.

There is another aspect to this particular story. In addition, leaders are typically described in very masculine terms, i.e. a strong leader is seen as confident, assertive, decisive, driven. Contrast that with expectations regarding female behavior and you are on one hand penalizing women who do display that kind of behavior (“She is too aggressive”) and on the other hand penalizing women who don’t (“She does not display sufficient executive presence”). Hmm.

Finally, there is no official term for this, but let’s call it “motherhood” bias – assumptions are made about the engagement levels of women who have children. Too often it is assumed that a woman cannot be 100% committed to both children and work, and that work will suffer as a result. Or that they will not be willing to take on stretch assignments because that may leave them with less time for their families.

Of course there are factors other than unconscious bias that need to be examined and adjusted in order support female career progression, not least structural concerns around working time flexibility, or family leave options. But while these require an organizational shift in thinking, each one of us can start working on our unconscious biases right now.

Our biases are so deeply ingrained that it will take some time until we recognize them, acknowledge them (it can be painful to let go of old thinking patterns) and change them. But the good news is, it is never to late to start! Here are some tips for getting started…

• Examine your own reactions to people – you will start noticing when bias creeps in and you’ll start changing the way you make decisions.
• Take Harvard’s Implicit Bias test to guage your level of unconscious bias:

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html

• Call it out – especially at work, don’t be afraid to ask the question if a man would be judged in the same way.
• Educate others – many people are surprised that there are scientifically proven unconscious biases at work in our daily decision-making. Explaining how they work when the opportunity arises will help spread the word!

When leaders and individuals, both male and female, begin to make small changes, cumulatively they will have a huge impact on female advancement at the workplace. Start by seeing what unconscious biases you notice today!

Click here for key references and further reading.