Hidden Gender Bias in the Workplace

Gina, a CPA at a large accounting firm, is a new mother of twins. To help meet her demands at home, Gina asked the firm if she could cut back to an 80 percent schedule. The firm agreed to the schedule change with prorated salary and benefits. The arrangement seemed like the perfect solution, until:

• Gina’s colleagues, male and female, began to comment on her ‘short’ workdays;
• the quality of Gina’s assignments began to diminish;
  
• someone ‘forgot’ to invite Gina to the annual retreat; and
• Gina’s group leader didn’t include her on a major business pitch.

Is there a problem here? Absolutely. Hidden or implicit gender bias is at work in this scenario.

While some bias is open and overt, much more of it is hidden. We all have hidden biases about particular groups, places, and things. Hidden bias stems from our everyday sense of ‘the way things are,’ which informs our everyday workplace interactions. Bias affects what we notice about people, how we interpret their behavior and what we remember about them. We tend to notice, interpret and remember behavior that reinforces our biases. These assumptions are pervasive: both men and women make them. The biases that result affect our interactions both with people we know and with people we don’t know.

Gender bias, specifically, is our assumptions about the characteristics of men and women. For example, men generally are assumed to be assertive, reliable, competent and committed to their careers. Women … not so much. Every day each one of us makes small judgments about individuals based on everyday assumptions that arise automatically. The critical point: brief informal interactions accumulate and ultimately impact formal employment decisions. Even small judgments based on gender bias can have powerful cumulative effects on women’s careers.

Success is largely the accumulation of advantages, exploiting gains to get bigger ones. Research has shown that men benefit more from their accomplishments than women, and even small imbalances accumulate over time and cause women to advance at a slower rate then men. This phenomenon was tested through a computer simulation of an 8-level institution with equal numbers of men and women employees. The model assumed a one percent bias favoring men. After eight rounds of promotions, the top level of management was composed of 65 percent men and just 35 percent women.

There is good news. While hidden gender bias is triggered automatically, actions upon those biases or stereotypes can be controlled. The first step in controlling automatic gender bias is to recognize it.

The following are the most common patterns of gender bias encountered in the workplace.

Maternal wall

The strongest and most explicit bias in today’s workplace is against mothers. Generally, maternal wall bias is triggered when motherhood becomes ‘salient’ or obvious to managers and colleagues. This typically occurs when a woman announces that she is pregnant, returns from maternity leave, or adopts a part-time or flexible schedule. Maternal wall bias stems from assumptions that mothers are not as competent as others, are not as committed to their jobs, and belong at home because they can’t be both good mothers and good workers. Fathers may run up against a comparable set of assumptions when they take an active role in caring for their families.

She isn’t competent enough

The truth of the common saying “women must try twice as hard to achieve half as much” is documented by more than a quarter century of social science. Women need to provide more evidence of job-related skills than their male counterparts before they are viewed as competent. Additionally, women are allowed fewer mistakes than men before they are judged incompetent.

What a witch!

Behavior that is acceptable in men often is considered unacceptable in women. A woman in a traditionally masculine job may be called a ‘witch,’ ‘hard to work with’ or ‘too ambitious’ – for the same behavior that helps a man establish himself as ‘assertive’ and ‘having leadership potential.’ The unspoken view in such situations is that women should be helpful, warm, understanding, and kind. In some workplaces, women are seen either as ‘likable, dependent…traditional women’ who are nice but incompetent or as ‘dominant, nontraditional women’ who are competent, but are disliked for violating unspoken norms that women should be inclusive and nurturing.

The gender wars

Workplaces create conflict among women when they evince approval of women who adhere to traditional feminine stereotypes (passive, nurturing, and allowing male supervisors to take the spotlight), but disapproval for women who buck such stereotypes. The most common workplace conflict among women is the generational conflict between older women who made it to the highest levels in their companies by closely following a traditional masculine career path and younger women who seek more flexible options, including part-time work.

The dangers of hidden bias

Because most gender bias is subtle rather than overt, policies and procedures that appear to be a facially neutral, objective, and job-related may be applied in ways that lead to fewer hiring and promotion opportunities, lower compensation, poor performance evaluations, more frequent disciplinary actions, and greater termination rates among women. These patterns result when managers base their employment decisions on biases rather than job performance. Decisions based on bias rather than legitimate job related reasons often will end up penalizing talented workers and rewarding less talented ones. As a result, such decisions may well jeopardize productivity and negatively affect employee morale.

Lower employee morale translates into lower retention rates and higher attrition and recruiting costs. Employers’ ability to remain competitive in their industries depends on providing a high quality service or product at competitive prices. This is difficult to achieve when employers are losing well-trained, talented employees and spending more to replace and train new employees. Gender bias can have a negative impact on a company’s bottom line.

Additionally, gender bias in the workplace can lead and has led to costly gender and family responsibilities discrimination claims. Managers’ reliance on stereotypes leads to poor decision-making. When decisions are based on assumptions rather than actual job performance, it is almost impossible to mount a successful defense to a discrimination claim.

The key to rooting out hidden bias is to raise managers’ awareness of their unconscious gender biases, create a culture of inclusiveness and audit relevant employment policies and procedures to ensure that they do not on their face or in application allow gender bias to creep into personnel decisions.

Raise awareness: Training is a valuable tool for raising awareness. It should:

1. Focus on the informal “hallway interactions” that take place everyday as well as the major employment decisions. Address the bias that can creep into the workplace through these brief, informal interactions and eventually these interactions will impact managers’ decision making;
2. Detail the business benefits (cost savings, increased productivity and efficiency, and morale) of retaining productive employees rather than terminating them or limiting their advancement based on assumptions about how they will or should behave;
3. Set forth the common patterns of gender biases and everyday examples of bias in the workplac
4. 4. Emphasize that all personnel actions must be based on legitimate job related criteria and business needs and individual performance rather than stereotypes.

Create a workplace that is inclusive: Make sure women’s accomplishments are recognized, squelch snide remarks about the commitment of employees working reduced schedules, and support women who do not display traditionally feminine traits.

Audit personnel policies and procedures: Human Resources should review both the language and application of personnel policies that may allow biases to creep into employment decisions. Relevant policies include:

• attendance
  
• leave
  
• availability and form of alternative work schedules
  
• compensation
  
• the lack of written objective hiring and promotion criteria

Human Resources should also review:

• interviewing, evaluation and disciplinary procedures
  
• hiring, promotion, termination and compensation rates between male and female employees

Where the audit indicates that gender biases are affecting decision making, the employer should take corrective action.

Having a workplace that is free from gender bias is becoming a business imperative as companies compete for employees and customers. Companies that work to eliminate bias will reap ample rewards – as well as have the satisfaction of knowing they are doing the right thing.

Consuela Pinto is Senior Counsel at the Center for WorkLife Law where she is responsible for educating employers and their attorneys about the developing law of Family Responsibilities Discrimination. Her extensive experience and expertise in the employment field is a result of practicing in both the government and private sectors.

Joan Williams is 1066 Foundation Chair, Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of the Center for WorkLife Law at UC Hastings College of Law. In 2006, she received the Margaret Brent Award for Women Lawyers of Achievement and in 2008, is scheduled to give the Massey Lectures at Harvard University.