Fighting Stereotypes & Breaking Biases Archives

Three business people speaking to each other.

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Equality & Diversity, Fighting Stereotypes & Breaking Biases

How Gender Inequality Hurts Men—and How to Stop It

We see the term “gender inequality” and we think of women—and for good reason. But we need men to get off the sidelines, and move the ball up the field as well. The key to getting men more involved is to reframe the goal. When we all understand that gender equality is not just about advancing women but about assuring equitable outcomes for everyone, we will make great strides to dismantle this systemic problem that is rife in our workplaces. Men are...

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by Andie & Al

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Equality & Diversity, Fighting Stereotypes & Breaking Biases, Leadership & Management

How to Design Workplace Systems That Work for Everyone

We know many leaders—not surprisingly, mostly men—believe they have little to no control over gender inequality. They also choose to believe their organizations are meritocracies, where success comes from hard work and merit alone. Yet working women know and experience something quite different. As we explained in our recent article, seemingly small and insignificant parts of the entrenched workplace systems, processes, and practices organizations foster inequity and ultimately compound over time. Add the ongoing consequences of systemic biases and gender-based obstacles,...

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by Andie & Al

Man and woman negotiate a business deal.

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Equality & Diversity, Fighting Stereotypes & Breaking Biases, Sexism

Why Anti-Bias Training Doesn’t Work

Why aren’t we seeing more progress in ending gender diversity in senior leadership? The primary reason is most diversity initiatives are premised on a fundamental misconception: The assumption underlining most of these initiatives is that if we address individuals’ biases, leadership diversity will follow. But women are not held back by individuals’ beliefs alone. Entrenched systems, processes and practices make leadership diversity so hard to achieve, and it is these systems that we need to change. Identifying more effective approaches is a...

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by Andie & Al

Woman struggling with microaggressions at work

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Equality & Diversity, Fighting Stereotypes & Breaking Biases

Compound Inequalities: Why Microaggressions at Work Matter

We all know about the positive impact of compound interest in our bank accounts, but often fail to recognize how the compounding effects of systemic biases and frequent microaggressions at work can impact a woman’s chances of career success. While compounding interest delivers large gains over time, the seemingly small differences between the ways in which women and men are treated in the workplace also delivers large negative consequences for women’s career advancement. For example, even tiny inequalities in the evaluation...

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by Andie & Al

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Equality & Diversity, Fighting Stereotypes & Breaking Biases, Women Working with Women

8 Things White Women Should Do to Help Black Women in the Workplace

When we talk about the obstacles women face in the workplace, we often proceed, quite incorrectly, as if all women, regardless of race, ethnicity, or other distinctive identities that intersect with their gender, have a common, shared experience of bias. They do not. Black women, in particular, face unique obstacles to career advancement that are far more formidable and difficult to overcome than those faced by white women, or, indeed, other women of color or men regardless of their characteristics....

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by Andie & Al

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Fighting Stereotypes & Breaking Biases, Leadership & Management, Women Working with Women

It’s Not The Women, It’s The Workplace

In this inaugural column for Forbes.com on women, careers, and the workplace, I want to make clear from the outset that I do not believe women’s difficulties in advancing in their careers on terms comparable to men are because women are doing something wrong or lack some essential quality needed for business or professional advancement. There is no empirical evidence that women lack confidence, are poor negotiators, are risk-averse, are overly burdened by domestic responsibilities or are mean to other...

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by Andie & Al

woman boss teaching millennial men and other workers at meeting

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Equality & Diversity, Fighting Stereotypes & Breaking Biases, Leadership & Management, Sexism

Don’t Count on Millennials to End Gender Bias

Millennial men—those born roughly between the early 1980s and the late 1990s—are often said to be far more egalitarian with respect to gender than their older counterparts. For example, Boston Consulting Group reported in 2017 that “men younger than 40 are far more attuned than older men to the obstacles women face in the workplace,” and “are more willing to change their behavior to make the interventions [needed to reduce those obstacles] succeed.” Likewise, in a paper prepared for the Council...

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by Andie & Al

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Compensation & Promotion, Fighting Stereotypes & Breaking Biases, Gender Communication Techniques

How Women Can Talk Themselves Out of Speech-Based Gender Biases

In her book Feminist Fight Club, recently excerpted on Fast Company, author Jessica Bennett writes about the “persistent double standard” that women face in the office every time they open their mouths: Use too many stereotypically “feminine” speech patterns, and you risk falling victim to gender bias and undercutting your authority. But carefully prune those habits out of the way you talk, and you not only sacrifice your own authenticity but risk being penalized by those same sexist biases as...

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by Andie & Al

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Advocating for Yourself, Equality & Diversity, Fighting Stereotypes & Breaking Biases, Sexism, Stereotype Threat

Rules Are Not Self-Enforcing

Serena Williams broke three rules in her September 8th final match at the U.S. Open. She received coaching signals, broke her racquet, and “verbally abused” the chair umpire calling him a “thief.” All three of these actions are in violation of the Grand Slam Code of Conduct. But rules are not self-enforcing; someone has to determine there has been a violation and then decide whether further action should be taken. So the question in Williams’ case is not whether she broke...

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by Andie & Al

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Fighting Stereotypes & Breaking Biases, Gender Communication Techniques, Life Balance & Positive Mindsets, Sexism, Stereotype Threat

The Apple in the Room: Avoiding the Temptation to Buy into Traditional Gender Stereotypes

When women think about the impact of gender stereotypes in the workplace, they often think about what they can do to avoid, overcome, or confront the workplace biases that flow from them. We’re addressing these biases and offering suggestions for dealing with them by using attuned gender communication. But women focusing on the stereotypes that other people have about them should not obscure the importance of the stereotypes that women have about themselves: their talents, capacities, resources, and appropriate objectives...

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by Andie & Al