Several studies have found that when equally qualified male and female candidates apply for the same job, managers are much more likely to hire the man.
Often than not, the corporate world gravitates towards the masculine style of leadership. The hiring practices and final decisions are gender-biased. This could be conscious, and sometimes not.
One thing that has been a subject of debate is ‘In-group’ favoritism. Men dominate many sectors and this may explain the persistent gender bias. Note the keyword is ‘may’.
The truth is that gender bias is rife during the recruitment process. More often than not.
It is concerning that in some cases, underqualified men are hired over more talented women. Meaning that companies are basically losing valuable talent. Sadly.
Gender should not be the first thing that people see in professionals or potential hires. Your efficacy at the workplace has nothing to do with your gender.
To be fair, gender is an important part of who we are. There is nothing wrong with being a woman and proud to be one. The problem comes in when people judge your skills and efficiency in certain tasks based on your gender.
There is a widely held perception that for girls make it in competitive fields, they have to do BETTER and be BETTER than boys. Young ambitious minds see men are creatures to compete with. That they are a great threat to achievement.
That may explain why many women are in constant competition with men. This is especially the case with ambitious women. Those whose goal is to break the glass ceiling.
The result?
Girls are growing to be women who perceive men as their benchmark. Their main goal is to defeat the man. It is almost like the man becomes an enemy to success, progress, and achievement.
Two kinds of biases stand out: statistical and preferential.
With statistical discrimination, a good example of this is rooted in the belief in the existence of average gender differences in abilities or skills. It wrong to draw on information about average performance.
And then, there is preference-based discrimination which is driven by pure stereotypes, favoritism for one gender, and a bias against the other. This is the worst kind since its a conscious decision: You know that a certain person will be the ideal hire, but you overlook that and proceed to hire the other person.
Phrases like, on average women make better nurses, that women make better cleaners, that men make better engineers, or that men make better doctors are prime examples.
Until hiring and promotion practices change, women will continue to graduate from top institutions in large numbers, dominate lower level positions and certain sectors but they will still be less likely to make it to the top.
Did you know that a significant number of women working in tech firms are assigned non-tech roles? Not because they are not qualified, but just because. Gender-bias is rife in the tech sector.
To be fair, the corporate world is led by men confident that they are identifying talent objectively and effectively. The reality is that decision making about talent is riddled with unconscious assumptions and personal biases
To solve this problem, we need to change hiring policies and practices. Take gender out of the equation when making any hiring decision. Completely. We also need to learn that women and men will exhibit different behaviors thus we need to learn how to effectively and accurately perceive these.
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