#ChooseToChallenge - Microaggressions are a Workplace Reality

In celebration of International Women's Day 2021 theme "Choose to Challenge", i want to shine a light to the struggles women face in the workplace and educate the men that really want to help them succeed.

Everyday sexism and racism—known as microaggressions—occur in the workplace. Wether intentional or unintentional, microaggressions signal disrespect and reflect inequality which has a negative impact on women and companies.

Microagressions in the workplace

There’s no denying the fact that being a woman in the workplace is tough. If you identify as a woman, you've probably experienced first hand these subtle yet damaging gender microaggressions.

Microaggressions are defined by Webster's dictionary as:

"a comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a marginalized group"

And have been categorized in three forms:

• Microassaults: Commonly described as “old-fashioned racism” because the person behaves deliberately in a discriminatory manner while not intending to be offensive. An example of a microassault is a person telling a racist joke then saying, “I was just joking”.
• Microinsults: These occur when people unintentionally or unconsciously say discriminatory things or behave in a discriminatory way like telling someone their skin tone is lighter for their race
• Microinvalidations: These are actions and behaviors that deny racism and discrimination. Invalidations occur when a person undermines the struggles of target like invalidating someone's feelings by saying that they are "too sensitive".

Examples of microaggressions in the workplace:

Most commonly, women have to provide more evidence of their competence than men do. Women who may be experts in their field or at a high ranking level within an organization often experience male colleagues ignoring, interrupting or rolling their eyes when they speak. Usually they find their judgment questioned in their area of expertise and are also twice as likely as men to have been mistaken for someone in a more junior position. 

Some other examples of microaggressions include:

• treating someone as a second-class citizen because of their gender, race, or sexual orientation
• telling a thin person that they should eat more food
• making assumptions about someone based on their religion, age, or class
• underrepresenting different races, sexualities, and disabilities in the media
• using outdated and offensive terminology, such as, “That’s so gay”
• considering certain people to be of more value than others based on their ethnicity, class, or sexuality
• Referring to different targeted groups as “you people”

Not addressing microaggressions leads to a hostile work environment which can escalate to a fractured workplace culture or the loss of employees who don’t feel valued at work. 

Understanding what microaggressions are and how people communicate them can help others recognize them and correct their behavior.

Combating Microaggressions in the Workplace:

Don’t let toxic interactions, whether intentional or unintentional, disrupt your organization’s culture. If you find yourself in a situation in which someone has approached you with a concern, then it's time to act.

As individuals, we should all start with identifying our own biases and apologize genuinely if we commit a microaggression, and be open to feedback if we accidentally hurt someone.

As a man, there may be times when you aren’t the recipient of a microaggression, but you witness one. If this is the case, it is your oppotunity to speak up and become an ally for those minorities who constantly deal with this on the daily.

Where women choose to work clearly impacts their success. If companies make significant investments in building a more flexible and empathetic workplace filled with supportive teams and inclusive culture they can retain employees and help them achieve their potential.

As en employeer you can take action and even train your staff on microaggressions with these steps:

• Making unconscious bias, conscious through education and training for employees
• Creating internal discussion forums to understand the opinions and feelings of marginalised employee groups
• Slowing down decision making on hiring and promotion to avoid snap judgements being made
• Ensuring that interview panels are diverse, and that selection is based on skills and aptitude
• Calling out microaggression in the right way if you see it.
• Verbally acknowledge feelings expressed by employees.

To avoid undoing years of progress toward gender equality, companies need to act now to promote, hire, and retain women. Microaggressions are subtle but powerful. There are ways to mitigate them in positive and productive ways through healthy dialogue and empathy.

When you repeatedly find microaggressions in your workplace experience, document each one and report them to your company’s human resources department. We spend a lot of time at work, and how we feel in our environment is important - be vocal.