Why women are the underdogs

This is part two in a series about bias. In part one (read it HERE), we look at unconscious bias: how we see the world through the lens of a collection of our experiences; what we’ve been told and taught. Performance bias falls into the told/taught category and is based on assumptions about women’s and men’s abilities.

Performance bias means we tend to underestimate women’s performance and overestimate men’s. As a result, women have to accomplish more to prove they're as competent as men. Research shows women are often hired based on past accomplishments (they need to prove that they have the right skills), while men are hired based on future potential (we assume they have the skills they need).

Performance bias often leads to missed opportunities for women and for the firms that are hiring candidates. In one study, two different resumes were created for a police chief role: one emphasized street smarts and the other was heavy on school smarts. When hiring managers were asked to define the hiring criteria for the job prior to seeing the resumes, there was no bias against female candidates. However, the group that was asked to define its hiring criteria after having seen the resumes ended up favoring whatever type of experience the male candidate had. Thus, they valued street smarts when the male candidate had street smarts and school smarts when the male candidate had school smarts. Evaluators shifted the criteria around, favoring the male in most instances. Ultimately what ended up mattering was whatever experience the male candidate had.

Gender bias also impacts promotion rates as gender bias corrupts performance reviews. It’s even more pronounced when the criteria for the reviews are unclear which leaves room for individuals to rely on gut feelings, shifting criteria, and personal inferences. This leaves employers with unhappy employees, an increased in attrition rate, a shortage of female leaders, and the potential for discrimination lawsuits.

Even small differences in starting salary and career trajectory can have a large impact when compounded over the course of someone’s career.

Creating awareness is just a first step. It’s important to build decision frameworks that remove bias from resume evaluations, candidate interviews, starting salaries, and performance/promotion evaluations. Once the frameworks are in place, share them with your employees, being transparent about how decisions are made. This is a guaranteed way to build employee trust and ensure your firm retains its best employees.