women do not. Once you attach a gender link or a gender label, it gets devalued if it’s female. This happens over and over again, and it is not because people are intentionally biased or intentionally sexist, but they do not see potential and leadership in women, particularly nonwhite women.”
What was really shocking to me was the fact that women were as likely as men to ascribe leadership qualities to men, and dismiss equally qualified women.
Brian Nosek is the director of Project Implicit, a collaboration of scientists at Harvard, the University of Washington, and the University of Virginia. The project uses an online word association test to gauge subconscious bias. For instance, the test measures how quickly you pair words such as male and career . (The test is on the Web, and anyone can take it: https://implicit.harvard.edu .) When I took it I found that—even though I was writing this book—I, too, subconsciously associate males with career and females with family.
Nosek says these subconscious beliefs could manifest themselves in a variety of ways. For example, “[a manager] may be less likely to ask a female staff member to take a job that requires travel, whereas the same thought might not occur to a manager with a male staffer.” And, Nosek points out, this can happen whether the manager is a man or a woman.
When I ask how this might have an impact on my quest for a raise, Nosek says, “The way in which this implicit stereotype might manifest is just a general feeling of not belonging,
an uncertainty that this is something I am, or can do ... whether it’s appropriate to even ask, whereas it may not occur to a man in the same situation to even think about whether it’s appropriate or not. He might think, ‘I’ve been working here three years—time for a raise, damn it!’ ”
I ask Catalyst President and CEO Ilene H. Lang why women just aren’t seen as leaders. One of the reasons, she says, is that bias is perpetuated by the workplace itself. Her organization has studied how employees are chosen in companies that have leadership-development programs. “Most companies have competency-based models ... They start out by saying, ‘Who’s successful in our company? What do those successful leaders in our company look like?’ ” Lang tells me. The companies then design their program for screening high-potential individuals around those key attributes. But because subconscious bias plays its part, the companies end up institutionalizing a preference for men. “The performance-management system will say ‘this is how we spot the up-and-coming talent; these are the things you have to be good at,’ and, well, when you look at most of those characteristics what you find is that of the top ten, six or seven reflect characteristics of the current leadership, which is most often male,” she says.
Like many of us, Tina Brown sees the institutionalized preference for men in action all the time. “You discover with a sort of incredulity that men don’t even picture a woman in a job.” She offers a recent example in which she was talking to a television executive about staffing changes at his organization: “I asked, ‘Who are you thinking of bringing
in to be the overall boss of the situation?’ And he looked around the room, and he said, ‘Well, I was thinking about maybe somebody like—’ and he named a guy who was a complete mid-level player, in my judgment. I was incredulous. I’m thinking, ‘Wait a minute. Within this organization that we’re discussing, I could think of three brilliant women who could easily do that job. They’re not even on the drawing board. He’s thinking about going outside to a mid-level man who’s had a lot of corporate buzz and he’s ignoring the three women in the company who I know for a fact are far superior.’ ”
BEHIND THE STARTING LINE
What surprised me most was the news that most women, even if they get their well-deserved raise, won’t ever close
What was really shocking to me was the fact that women were as likely as men to ascribe leadership qualities to men, and dismiss equally qualified women.
Brian Nosek is the director of Project Implicit, a collaboration of scientists at Harvard, the University of Washington, and the University of Virginia. The project uses an online word association test to gauge subconscious bias. For instance, the test measures how quickly you pair words such as male and career . (The test is on the Web, and anyone can take it: https://implicit.harvard.edu .) When I took it I found that—even though I was writing this book—I, too, subconsciously associate males with career and females with family.
Nosek says these subconscious beliefs could manifest themselves in a variety of ways. For example, “[a manager] may be less likely to ask a female staff member to take a job that requires travel, whereas the same thought might not occur to a manager with a male staffer.” And, Nosek points out, this can happen whether the manager is a man or a woman.
When I ask how this might have an impact on my quest for a raise, Nosek says, “The way in which this implicit stereotype might manifest is just a general feeling of not belonging,
an uncertainty that this is something I am, or can do ... whether it’s appropriate to even ask, whereas it may not occur to a man in the same situation to even think about whether it’s appropriate or not. He might think, ‘I’ve been working here three years—time for a raise, damn it!’ ”
I ask Catalyst President and CEO Ilene H. Lang why women just aren’t seen as leaders. One of the reasons, she says, is that bias is perpetuated by the workplace itself. Her organization has studied how employees are chosen in companies that have leadership-development programs. “Most companies have competency-based models ... They start out by saying, ‘Who’s successful in our company? What do those successful leaders in our company look like?’ ” Lang tells me. The companies then design their program for screening high-potential individuals around those key attributes. But because subconscious bias plays its part, the companies end up institutionalizing a preference for men. “The performance-management system will say ‘this is how we spot the up-and-coming talent; these are the things you have to be good at,’ and, well, when you look at most of those characteristics what you find is that of the top ten, six or seven reflect characteristics of the current leadership, which is most often male,” she says.
Like many of us, Tina Brown sees the institutionalized preference for men in action all the time. “You discover with a sort of incredulity that men don’t even picture a woman in a job.” She offers a recent example in which she was talking to a television executive about staffing changes at his organization: “I asked, ‘Who are you thinking of bringing
in to be the overall boss of the situation?’ And he looked around the room, and he said, ‘Well, I was thinking about maybe somebody like—’ and he named a guy who was a complete mid-level player, in my judgment. I was incredulous. I’m thinking, ‘Wait a minute. Within this organization that we’re discussing, I could think of three brilliant women who could easily do that job. They’re not even on the drawing board. He’s thinking about going outside to a mid-level man who’s had a lot of corporate buzz and he’s ignoring the three women in the company who I know for a fact are far superior.’ ”
BEHIND THE STARTING LINE
What surprised me most was the news that most women, even if they get their well-deserved raise, won’t ever close
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