For women, battling bias is a continuous process…

If you are a woman who is entering the corporate world with dreams and apprehensions at the same time, this article is for you.

If you are a mid-career woman who has worked for anywhere between ten to fifteen years and are trying to carve your niche in your career, this is for you.

If you are a senior women leader who has ‘conquered’ some barriers yet continue to encounter barriers of various kinds often and still need to find coping mechanisms, this is for you!

Women are judged all the time at work; if you happen to be polite and kind, you will be seen as timid and soft; if you happen to be bold and passionate, you will be seen as bossy and overbearing; if you try to strike a balance you will be seen as lacking capabilities to lead. Despite so many odds stacked up against women, women continue to stay hopeful that fairness and equitableness will prevail. They sacrifice a lot and deal with numerous pressures, coping with stress at work and home and the least their colleagues at work can do is to refrain from letting their biases affect women and derail their progression.

Victims of bias

While there are numerous challenges women face in our corporate lives and career, I want to focus this article specifically on the biases women often see at play and how these dent their careers and affect their morale, thereby weakening their resolve to succeed. It’s a systemic problem that needs to be noticed and addressed failing which diversity and inclusion will largely remain a catch word or phrase.

Women are soft targets for various types of bias; let’s look at some of these:

Gender Bias

Gender bias refers to unequal treatment of individuals based on their gender. Typically, this stems from an unconscious and inaccurate connection between a person’s ability and traditional views of their gender. On many occasions, females that are equally qualified for job positions are misjudged, and men are preferred over women.

Stereotyping Bias

People have been used to stereotyping of men and women and their behaviours, such that, when a man asserts himself and leads the team he is seen as competent, assertive and able, whereas when a woman does the same, she is seen as bossy, aggressive and in capable.

Age Bias

Ageism or age bias is defined as judging an individual based on their age. This type of bias affects both the young and old. Hiring individuals because they are younger and therefore more likely to be around longer or because they are older and therefore likely to have more wisdom are two manifestations of age bias.

Recency bias

When a person has recently seen a woman in a situation where she has had to get work done by being assertive and pushy prioritizing the business objectives over being liked by everyone, she will be branded as bossy, overbearing and autocratic, regardless of how she conducts herself after that incident, as this is the most recent view they have of her.

Conformity bias

This is a scenario where regardless of an individual’s views of you as a woman, their views are influenced or changed by the views of others, where herd mentality could kick in. People can often be influenced by the lead of their cohort who may form a negative opinion about the woman and the rest will gang up and parrot the same comment.

Confirmation bias

When a person has already made up their mind about a woman that she is pushy, regardless of how she conducts herself with her colleagues, he/she will brand her as pushy, which is a confirmation of the view he/she already has about the woman.

Halo effect

This involves the way you think or feel about a person being shaped by one characteristic. This one positive or negative trait can influence their thinking about a person. Many times women are expected to be submissive and less smart than their male counterparts and are criticized if they come across as assertive and confident.

Horns Effect

The horns effect is the direct opposite of the halo effect, in that when we see one bad thing about a person, and we let it cloud our opinions

Affinity bias

Due to a person’s predisposition to gravitate toward those with whom they share a connection, they will tend to find reasons to rate others who are the other person’s peers as less capable. Often, women have been victims of this bias and we see them struggling to rise in their career.

Being aware of these biases and having a genuine openness to get rid of these will go a long way in really bringing Diversity and Inclusion at the heart of an organization. Merely signposting it with women’s day celebrations and feel-good social media posts will not go deep enough to bring about the much-needed change.

Keep going

Despite the above it is heartening to see capable, high potential and passionate women navigate these challenges with resilience and fortitude and fight these barriers with their grit and conviction. Keep going you bold women and I wish you the very best in your career; may your tribe increase!