You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby!

“I'm not telling women to be like men. I'm telling us to evaluate what men and women do in the workforce and at home without the gender bias.” – Sheryl Sandberg

Stories from the Workplace – Gender Bias in All the Wrong Places!

Looking back, it was a dubious honor for women to be acknowledged by the marketing world by Virginia Slims in 1968. It is my first recollection of a product clearly targeted at and differentiated for women, albeit a deadly one.

A lot has changed since then. A lot has yet to change.

Social media is replete with memes celebrating women and highlighting their challenges in the corporate world. My favorite one is from Sheryl Sandberg. As a father of two adult daughters, I can’t agree more.

 The following vignettes are true, shared from colleagues who’ve been witness or victim to the not-so-subtle bias that still persists.

Bias Against Women In the Management Ranks

IBM was a thriving enterprise when I joined in 1979. IBM was well-known for its “Respect for the individual” value and focus on management training, which reinforced the respect message.

My division was predominately male as were the leaders. The graduates who filled the ranks of new hires in the 1980s were significantly more diverse. The talent IBM hired was top-shelf. It was only a matter of time before women would be filling leadership roles.

The manner in which these women were described and discussed was typical of the times and unacceptable. To be completely transparent, I was also part of the problem. The saddest part was that other women used the same pejoratives and denigrating comments about their female colleagues.

Here are a few samples. “She dresses like a man.” “She acts just like a man.” “How come they always select women that behave like men?” The list could go on. Instead of celebrating the increased diversity, the hallway chatter was derogatory.

I do not suggest for one moment that IBM was complicit, these comments were whispered throughout the halls and in gatherings after work. Looking back, it was pathetic.

How much has changed since then and how much further do we have to go?

How Do You Know Unless You Ask?

Talent discussions are a terrible place for bias to creep in. I shared my experience in an article last year. Here is an example from a colleague that shows management using bias against family responsibilities and children against the potential career growth of a female professional.

"She would not want to move – she has small children." Or, "Her husband/partner has an important career/job." "That leader (woman) would not be interested in that project due to childcare/parent care, etc."

These so-called issues rarely (if ever) surface if the leader is a man who has children or aging/ill parents. My colleague is careful to remind leaders in talent discussions that they should be broad and inclusive identifying talent for new responsibilities or special projects. Early identification for opportunities is the avenue for talent to shine and develop.

If managers are biased in who they choose for key projects, they are artificially limiting the pipeline of diverse talent. We need to push back by asking "Why not?" when a name is rejected and have the leaders articulate the skills, behaviors and/or gaps that limit the candidate – not their family status. Perhaps the answer winds up to be "I've already asked and that candidate is not interested at this time." Hooray – that is the right way to decide!

Why Are Women Afraid of Other Women?

As highlighted earlier, my initial experiences with women in leadership positions included other women degrading or showing bias against their female colleagues. This happens all too often.

One colleague talks of a previous boss who was extremely intimidated by her . The boss felt that she was too aggressive, would not comply with status-quo, and was too social. The boss also attributed her social nature to cultural background. She was told that she could not be trusted with confidential information since she was close friends with some of the clients.  My colleague was Hispanic.

The boss simply could not believe that social interaction was not detrimental to the business. The boss demanded that she stop all social engagements when visitors from South or Central America were in town. She pushed back and told the boss that she was not allowed to manage her personal life. The boss told her that being aggressive and social was a huge roadblock in her career.

It’s Not Only Sticks & Stones That Hurt – Words Do, Too

I chronicled the word “aggressive” in my article. Another word that is the opposite, but as damaging, is “sensitive.” When is the last time you heard a man described in this way? Especially in a demeaning manner.

When a woman is described as sensitive there is an immediate connotation that the person is weak. This piece is about a brilliant senior director-level female on the precipice of promotion. She had clients (internal and external) that spoke her praises. Her team adored her. She received excellent performance reviews. She was, by all measures, ready to be promoted to VP.

At work she was mellow with a low-toned voice and was highly respected for her empathy and emotional intelligence. She was not afraid to show compassion and a bit of emotion to others when appropriate. She even described herself as a sensitive person – she scored “F” on Myers Briggs Judgment/Feeling dimension.

She was not promoted for two cycles despite HR pushing for it. The C-suite thought she could not handle the pressure of the job. Ultimately, she left and is now a Senior VP elsewhere and most of her team followed!

Where Do We Go From Here?

These stories exhibit the workplace challenges that still exist. We actually have come a long way since the Virginia Slims advertisement but still have a long way to go to be truly inclusive and non-biased.

Most companies have harassment training which includes gender, religion, ethnicity and other attributes – all of which are irrelevant when it comes to evaluating talent! Only job performance and potential matter.

Awareness is the first step. Leaders, men and women alike, must be able to detect bias in the workplace. However, they must also address it directly and swiftly.

Beyond this, we must develop the means by which individuals, whether management or individual contributors, understand how to be inclusive. Companies must forge an environment where everyone knows how to reach out and engage all of their colleagues and be truly inclusive and diverse.

Until then, we’ve still got a long way to go.

Please share your stories … and, most importantly, let’s accelerate the path to the removal of bias and the age of inclusion.

Michael Massetti is an Executive Partner with Gartner who really does enjoy being a supply chain professional! Seriously. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to Alex Rizzuto for her editorial contributions! 

Other articles by Michael …

• Do Men Have A Clue About Women?
• The Summer of My (Supply Chain) Discontent
• 7 Creative Techniques for Supply Chains to Weather a Stormy Market
• The Snowy Big Data Supply Chain Event of January 2016
• Dealing With Big Data: From Quants to Smarts
• So, You Really Enjoy Being a Supply Chain Professional?
• Are Supply and Demand Driving You Crazy?
• Having Fun Managing Your Suppliers?
• Risky Business
• Tech Support During Computing’s Jurassic Era
• How Centerfield Made Me the Leader I Am Today!
• Are You Afraid of the Danger Zone?
• Your Next Career Step – Anticipate or Fear “The Fork in the Road”?