Fighting Stereotypes & Breaking Biases Archives - Page 4 of 5

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Advocating for Yourself, Compensation & Promotion, Equality & Diversity, Fighting Stereotypes & Breaking Biases, Gender Communication Techniques, Leadership & Management, Office Politics

How to Get Ahead at Work With Attuned Gender Communication

It is unlikely any of us will see workplaces that are completely free of gender bias in the foreseeable future. No matter how well-intentioned an organization may be, there are inescapable gender roles and expectations that are established by our society from the time we are born. We believe, however, that career opportunities for all employees (both women and men) can be drastically improved if everyone — managers, entry-level employees, women, and men — became more attuned to gender communication. Whether...

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by Andie & Al

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Equality & Diversity, Fighting Stereotypes & Breaking Biases, Gender Communication Techniques, Office Politics

How to Increase Gender Diversity in Law Firms and Legal Departments

In January, a U.S. Magistrate Judge sanctioned an attorney for telling opposing counsel it wasn’t “becoming of a woman” to raise her voice during a contentious deposition. In imposing the sanction, the judge wrote, “A sexist remark is not just a professional discourtesy, although that in itself is regrettable and all too common. The bigger issue is that comments like [this attorney’s] reflect and reinforce the male-dominated attitude of our profession.” Indeed, as a 2015 report by the American Bar Foundation and...

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by Andie & Al

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Advocating for Yourself, Fighting Stereotypes & Breaking Biases, Gender Communication Techniques, Office Politics

Stepping into Avery’s Journey and Breaking Through Bias

In this column, we welcome our first guest columnist, Bethany Whittles Harris. Ms. Harris is an associate at Mossing & Navarre, LLC, where her practice includes prosecuting medical malpractice, complex personal injury, and nursing home negligence cases. I recently agreed to participate in GlassCeiling.com’s professional development seminar “Avery’s Journey” as a walk-on, though I had no idea into what, exactly, I was walking. All I knew was that the program would count for continuing legal education credits (CLE’s) and would involve skits based on...

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by Andie & Al

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

Misogynists Among Us

Many of the men who identify themselves as “men’s rights activists” are aggressively misogynistic. You may never have encountered such men or even have been aware of their existence, but they are organized and appear to be growing in number. They typically characterize men as subject to widespread discrimination and lacking the power, privileges, and advantages women have. Given the irrationality and factual inaccuracy of this sort of anti-female rhetoric, if you do become aware of men voicing views of...

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by Andie & Al

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Advocating for Yourself, Compensation & Promotion, Fighting Stereotypes & Breaking Biases, Gender Communication Techniques, Office Politics, Sexism

Managing the Impressions You Make

How you act, move, and gesture (your nonverbal behavior), the ways in which you speak (your verbal behavior), and how you dress and present yourself (your appearance) control other people’s impressions of you. That’s right: What you signal to others by the image you convey is far more important in shaping their impressions of you than is the substance of your comments, your actual productivity, or the insightfulness of your ideas. Of course, your substantive performance — what you actually...

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by Andie & Al

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Advocating for Yourself, Fighting Stereotypes & Breaking Biases, Life Balance & Positive Mindsets, Office Politics

Career Reentry

If you have been out of the workplace for a significant period of time, restarting your career can be frustrating and disillusioning. Only about 30 percent of the highly qualified women who want to resume a full-time executive or professional career are able to do so. This is a sobering statistic, but you can significantly increase your chances of a successful career reentry with proper planning and preparation. Prepare To Reenter Before You Exit Before you leave full-time employment, you should start...

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by Andie & Al

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Advocating for Yourself, Fighting Stereotypes & Breaking Biases, Gender Communication Techniques

Getting Out From Behind the Modesty Veil

Women often (unconsciously) default to traditional gender stereotypes when they think about themselves and their abilities. The problem with relying on such stereotypes is that these stereotypes unnecessarily limit a woman’s career choices and restrict her advancement opportunities. One of the most career-damaging stereotypes is that a woman should be modest. If you hold this stereotype, you are likely to believe that simply because you are a woman, you should be unassuming, self-effacing, and reluctant to put yourself forward. And...

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by Andie & Al

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Fighting Stereotypes & Breaking Biases

How to Recognize Bias Against Working Mothers

The biases you are likely to face in your pursuit of career advancement as a mother with children still at home are rooted in a pervasive American assumption that mothers should be committed to their children without restraint or reservation, that children’s emotional health and academic achievement depend on their mothers being available to them 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Never mind the time a father, relative, friend, or trained caregiver spends with a child — it...

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by Andie & Al

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Fighting Stereotypes & Breaking Biases

How Self-Limiting Beliefs Can Sabotage Career Success

We normally think about stereotypes as preconceptions we have about other people because of their gender, race, economic status, education, dress, domestic situation, and so forth. But we also hold stereotypes about ourselves because of the categories we fall into. This means you are likely to have stereotypes about your own talents, capacities, opportunities, and appropriate goals and activities because you are a woman. These gender stereotypes operate as unconscious assumptions you have about yourself. Such assumptions can be quite...

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by Andie & Al

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Fighting Stereotypes & Breaking Biases

Agentic Behavior: Why ‘Acting Like a Man’ Won’t Work for Women

Career gatekeepers who hold traditional gender stereotypes ascribe communal characteristics to women because they are women. These gatekeepers are likely, therefore, to view the women who work for them as pleasant, warm, and likable but not particularly competent or good performers in challenging, competitive situations. What would happen, however, if you work for such people and you behave in a strongly agentic way? Suppose, for example, you forcefully argue that your organization should radically change its strategic course or you powerfully...

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by Andie & Al