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Article: Women in the Workplace
HR Wire's Nancy Hatch Woodward interviews Barbara Annis on the stereotypes that women are still fighting in the workplace, and uncovers the myth about why women leave.
Originally published November 5 2007 (Vol. 11, Issue 21) in HR Wire
This is the second of a two-part series on women in the workplace. The first article, in the
previous issue, looked at some of the latest research that brings into question just how far
women have come. This second article discusses ways companies can overcome the
stereotypes and make their workplaces environments that support women and treat them
fairly.
Over the past 30 years women have become an integral part of the workplace, but they still
aren't on equal footing to men. Yet, each year hundreds of companies win awards for being
woman-friendly, family-friendly, and working-mother-friendly. So what gives?
Organizations these days talk a lot about cooperation, inclusiveness, building flexibility,
moving from a company-and-control kind of paradigm to a more collaborative one says
Barbara Annis, author of Same Words, Different Language (Penguin 2004). And these are
the qualities often associated with more of a "woman's style," and yet, where are the women
leaders? "I've been at companies where they have won awards for being woman-friendly,"
Annis notes, "but when I start doing the diagnostics, I will have women say to me, 'If I look at
that award one more time, I'm going to throw up.'" The image doesn't match up with the
reality, she says.
Companies have to go beyond just hiring more women and giving lip service to the idea that
women are important to the organization, says Annis. "Women are getting hired, but they
are not moving up the ladder." She points to the fact that between 55% and 62% of women
are recruited at the pre-manager level; yet, as you move up the ladder, women only make
up 18–20% of those at the threshold at the top.
Linda C. Babcock, Ph.D., professor of Economics at Carnegie Mellon University's H. John
Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management agrees. "I really think women today are
unprepared for the realities of the workplace," she says, "because our society has really
sold them this line that gender discrimination is a thing of the past and everyone is equal."
Identifying stereotypes
One of the interesting findings in the studies discussed in part one of this article was that
both men and women tended to make the same stereotypical assumptions about women.
"There was some variability in the presumptions men and women made," said Shelley
Correll, Ph.D., associate professor of sociology at Cornell University, whose study showed
mothers were hired less frequently than non-mothers and men. "But overall, these biases
didn't differ by the gender of the person doing the evaluation." The main reason for this fact
is that even if we don't endorse the stereotypes, they still tend to bias our evaluations in an
implicit out-of-consciousness sort of way, she notes.
These stereotypes are why inequality in the workplace is so hard to address. "If it was just
sexist people doing these things, I think we would have gotten past it by now," says Correll.
"This is unconscious mostly. It occurs more subtly out of consciousness, and since we all
live in the same society and know the same stereotypes, we tend to have the same biases."
Babcock cites herself as a good example of how unconsious it can be. Her study on how
women don't negotiate as much as men in the workplace came about after she realized that
her department was handing out teaching assignments to students based on who asked for
them—and it was the male students who asked. Female students assumed they would be
asked if they were interested in the teaching assignments. "There was no malice on our
part," explains Babcock. "The last thing I wanted to do was discriminate against women, but
we just didn't realize the role that negotiation was playing in our department."
Identifying and addressing stereotypes in a very specific and constructive way is the first
step towards remedying many of the problems women face in the workplace, says Laura
Sabattini, Ph.D., director of Research for Catalyst. Not just typical diversity training, but
specialized training to educate employees, managers, and supervisors about how
stereotypes work, as well as teaching them the skills to address it in their day-to-day lives.
Addressing stereotypical thinking
People use stereotypes as a shortcut, Correll explains, especially when they are rushed,
making decisions in a hurry, and not really thinking through what they are doing. "When it
comes to making decisions about hiring or promoting people in the workplace, slowing down
and paying attention to what we are doing can help. One of the best ways to do this,"
Correll advises, "is to have decision makers justify these assessments to someone else."
Also, make sure your policies don't limit women. For instance, how do you make decisions?
asks Babcock. Do you favor people who come out and ask for promotions or raises? Do
you tend to overlook qualified people just because they don't ask for opportunities such as
heading up projects or taking on new responsibilities?
The biases are there before we enter the workplace, says Babcock. They come from the
way we are socialized as children, so overcoming them may take a great deal of work. "But
if we don't understand how our biases affect our behavior and then actively try to take steps
to change that, we aren't going to see any significant improvements in the workplace."
Affinity groups and mentoring
Companies can also encourage affinity groups for women. These groups provide a place
for women in an organization to share their experiences and give each other support. They
can also be a place for women to recognize workplace issues that may affect them, says
Sabattini, and find ways to work together to address the issues and find solutions.
Mentoring can also be quite helpful. Contrary to a prevalent stereotype that women in
senior positions are not very supportive of other women, the data actually shows the
opposite, says Sabattini. The more women in senior leadership positions at an organization,
the easier it is for other women to move up the ladder. "This is due partly to mentoring and
partly to having role models," she notes. "Seeing a woman who has made it and is effective
at her job can really help other women realize it is doable."
Too often, however, the mentoring job falls to the few women who have made it. Annis tells
the story of one senior executive woman who said she had eight women to mentor at her
company. ""That's not possible," says Annis. What works better, she says, is to use both
men and women. "If men are aware and trained with the right tools to mentor women—not to
make the women like men, but to forward their careers—that has been tremendously
successful."
The myth of why women leave
So, as Annis asks, what has happened to all those women who were hired at the pre-
manager stage who didn't make it into the senior ranks? Well, don't believe the media hype
that they all headed home to take care of their families. "That's a complete myth," she says.
"Unfortunately, women are perpetuating that myth because they don't want to burn bridges.
So, when they are asked why they are leaving, they say it's because of work/life balance
problems instead of what the problem really is."
Instead, they are leaving because they didn't feel valued, says Annis. "We hear it all the
time. Women say, 'I made it to the table, but so what?' Or 'I see no career progression
here,' or 'If I have to become the type of person they want me to become to get promotions,
I don't want it.'"
Women are also leaving to start their own businesses where they can reap the rewards of
their own leadership styles and strengths. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the
number of women-owned businesses grew at twice the national average between 1997 and
2002, to almost 6.5 million businesses. The Center for Women's Business Research found
that when you included all businesses where women owned 50% or more, that number
climbed to 10.4 million in 2006.1 And minority women are a significant part of the trend. In
fact, between 1997 and 2006, African-American women-owned businesses grew by 147%,
while Hispanic women-owned businesses grew by nearly 121%.2
Must women make changes?
Ever since they have been in the workplace, women have been given instructions on what
they should do, how they should act, what they should wear and so on if they want to be
successful: Act and dress more like a man. Show more of your feminine side. Pretend you
don't have children. Don't show you are vulnerable. Don't get angry. Do get angry. Ask for
what you want.
And yet after decades of participating actively in the workforce, women still face some of the
same kinds of discrimination they did back in the 1960s. While no one will deny that there
are things individual women can do in terms of developing their careers, discrimination
based on stereotypes is not going to be solved by "fixing women," says Sabattini. These
problems are systemic in the workplace and must be addressed at the structural level. "It's
not really about an individual woman," says Sabattini, "It about how she is perceived."
Babcock, however, has one piece of advice for women. "The next time you see a woman
being assertive for herself, instead of walking away and thinking, 'Wow, what a bitch,'
instead say publicly to her and everyone around you, 'This is great. I'm so glad she is
standing up for herself.' We need to start saying things like that so people can really start to
internalize that new norm."