Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash
We may be almost a month into 2020 (how?), but many of us are still fleshing out our goals for the new year. I know I am – both personally and professionally. As an organization, we also have goals – one of the biggest is to partner with companies that are not only interested in learning about what bias is, but about how they can make lasting cultural and structural change to mitigate it and move toward intersectional gender parity. On an organizational scale, for the companies we work with, this type of commitment can be difficult. It requires top-down buy-in, lasting effort, and full transparency.
On an individual scale, committing oneself to be a person dedicated to mitigating bias and creating cultural change is much simpler. It begins with a choice, or setting a goal. As it happens to be the time of year when we are creating and refining out goals, we encourage you to consider this one: (re)commit yourself to be a champion for intersectional gender parity. While it may seem lofty, there are small changes that you can make on a daily basis to ensure you are living this pledge.
3 Things You Can Do in 2020 To Be a Better Champion for Gender Parity in your Workplace
AMPLIFY DIVERSE VOICES.
Women are often not given credit for their ideas in the workplace, and when credit is given it is often seen as less valuable than it actually is. Women are also more likely to be victims to “the stolen idea” – meaning that if a woman shares an idea in a meeting, it can be overlooked or not heard at all, only to be repeated by a male or superior in the organization moments later and praised. Sound familiar? There is no simple “solution” for this, but there is a small behavioral change that you can do to create a large impact in your organization: amplification.
When a woman and/or diverse employee speaks, make sure their ideas are heard and attributed to them by using simple phrases when it happens, like, “Wow, that was a great idea. Way to build off of Megan’s thought. Megan, what do you think as the person who initially suggested this?” Similarly, when you notice that a woman is not being given proper credit for their work or accomplishments, give it to them! Send an email to the team, give them a shout out in an all-hands meeting… whatever it takes to get them noticed. Visibility is huge in this fight.
ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR COMPANY’S PROCESSES
Bias creeps into all of our basis business systems, including hiring, compensation, performance reviews, and assigning roles (more on that last one in a bit). You may not be in a position to make immediate changes to any specific business system directly, but you can create the culture where these systems are questioned and evaluated regularly. Interrupting bias is all about making small adjustments to existing systems – and these small adjustments start with someone who is willing to question the status quo.
Here are some examples of systems that may need to be questioned, and some verbiage to do so:
Hiring: What diverse networks is your company targeting when building their candidate pools? How heavily does your organization rely on “referral hiring” or “who-knows-who” culture? How are resumes graded, and what stopgaps are in place to make sure that all resumes are judged by the same rubric?
Reviews: What clear and specific criteria are positions being reviewed on? What evidence is required to measure performance?
CALL OUT THE OFFICE HOUSEWORK & HOW IT IS ASSIGNED
One of the more ambiguous basic business systems that is ripe for interruption at most (if not all) organizations is that of assigning roles. Women often play administrative roles within their teams, such as taking notes during meetings or planning a coworker’s wedding gift. If we aren’t careful, these tasks are repeatedly assigned to the same people or “type” of person, often because women are assumed to be “more organized” and “more thoughtful” (which, if you ask me, is more than a little insulting to our male counterparts.)
Interrupting this cycle is a huge area of opportunity to create cultural change on your direct team. It can be as simple as having a conversation with the team leader to explore some of the ways that office housework is assigned: how does it typically show up, and who is typically doing it? From there, suggest creating round-robin systems where assignments are made on a rotating basis.
One quick note on why this matters – when women are tied up on office housework, they have less time to dedicate to the career-enhancing work that gets them noticed (and promoted).
We get it: Thinking about being the individual who shapes your organization’s culture is intimidating, and overwhelming. But it starts with individuals, and grows from there – just like any great movement.
For more information in interrupting bias, we suggest checking out BiasInterrupters.org, a wonderful resource. As always, let us know if your organization is ready to make a change and if we can help.