The Story
Sexism is always a very tricky subject to cover, for me in particular. Why? Because I am a very introverted white male with disabilities that does not go out as much as he probably should. However, considering how is an important subject, and I like to read things, I will try my best to be as informed and un-biased as I can possibly can and talk about a subject that drew my attention.
In an article by The Conversation they mention that "Both women and men react more negatively to criticism if it comes from a woman. Our subjects reported that criticism by a woman led to a larger reduction in job satisfaction than criticism by a man. Employees were also doubly disinterested in working for the firm in the future if they had been criticized by a female boss". The data was the focus of a research which you can find here by professor Martin Abel.
In this article we will speculate as to the frequency in which it happens, why it happens and in the end try to make sense of it all.
Current Discrimination
Although one could argue with merit, that women are not as discriminated when it comes to being offered jobs as they were back in the day, something that is backed up by research and books. However as most researches are focused on entry level jobs the cracks begin to show when we start to discuss issues of promotion and behavioral discrimination. After all, work relations are harder to observe for researches.
And yet, as Harvard Business Review has covered, certain preconceptions of the workforce capabilities of Women and Men have been woefully wrong as: "But the women’s advantages were not at all confined to traditionally women’s strengths. In fact at every level, more women were rated by their peers, their bosses, their direct reports, and their other associates as better overall leaders than their male counterparts — and the higher the level, the wider that gap grows". The article states that, though certain preconceptions and biases were proven, things like "taking initiative" and "the drive to get results", which were thought to be male characteristics, were overturned by the stats.
And here is another interesting thing, according to The Conversation's article linked before, it appears "that both women and men react more negatively to criticism if it comes from a woman. Our subjects reported that criticism by a woman led to a larger reduction in job satisfaction than criticism by a man. Employees were also doubly disinterested in working for the firm in the future if they had been criticized by a female boss".
Though this may not sound as bad initially, one cant help but add it to a pile of mounting difficulties that women face when trying to climb the ladder.
The Results
So, if women are at the very least as good as, if not better, for leadership positions than men, why do we not see more women in management positions?
Rewire.com seems to have the answer in their article but to focus on a quote: "There are lots of reasons, researchers have found, but new findings suggest women aren’t putting themselves out there for leadership roles as regularly as men are. Raina Brands and Isabel Fernandez-Mateo of the London Business School studied more than 10,000 executives competing for top jobs in the U.K. While women start their careers with goals that match their male peers’, they tend to temper their expectations once they’ve had some time in the working world. They stop competing for high-powered jobs."
Curiously enough, Science Direct has posted an article in which it highlights the role of category-based expectancy violation in explaining extreme evaluations of ingroup and outgroup members. This essentially can be watered down to "people do not react well, when their expectations are shattered".
This is especially important, if you factor this research into the mix, then it appears that the obstacles a woman has to face to reach high ranks in business start to be a lot bigger than they would seem.
With co-worker backlash, rejection and sex based bias, it seems that we are a long way to go for proper equality in the workforce yet.
Jar on the subject
Considering how this is a sensitive subject, we went to Maria to have her give her opinion on the matter so we can better understand it from her perspective. This is what she had to say:
Generally speaking, when it comes to starting a family, women tend to have more responsibilities. This can leave them lagging behind earning a promotion, raise or a management position in general, because there might not be enough time left for those women to "conquer" such a demanding position. This can result in those women, though starting off with their ambitions aiming high, in the end they might not be able to accomplish what they initially started off aiming for. This may bring them into a frustrated state first and result in them being in a negative mindset in the workplace.
As one can expect, a negative mindset in a workplace environment can bring about tensions in regards to whether or not one gender achieves more in certain areas or not. It makes sense then, that we can see a negative reaction towards critique given by a woman, even if the recipient is another woman. What is most important to me, is to have a manager who truly knows how to manage people in those delicate situations, to begin with, and to furthermore have solid communication between the manager and all employees so they can together solve those situations.
Final Thoughts
When sexism is brought up in the workforce, a lot of people, including myself prior to this research, often use excuses to justify this discrimination. Though they are true to some extend, the current research is undeniable. Discrimination in the workforce may have been significantly lessened, and the strides that have been made should not be ignored, but it is clear that we still have a long way to go.
