It was the headline heard around the female world. “Olympics : Michael Phelps shares shares historic night with African-American.” This shocking original headline penned by the San Jose Mercury News went to press the morning after Simone Manuel tied for gold in the 100 meter freestyle with Canada’s Penny Oleksiak to become the first African-American woman to win an individual Olympic title in swimming. Simone’s historic gold medal win was instantly shadowed by the enormous gender bias in the Mercury News room that night. The headline, which has now been replaced along with a public apology, was simply unbelievable in 2016. How could such bias still be present the year the United States has its first female presidential candidate and Angela Merkel the Chancellor of Germany, is serving her third term?
According to The Harvard Business Review “There are more CEOs of large U.S. companies who are named David (4.5%) than there are CEOs who are women (4.1%) — and David isn’t even the most common first name among CEOs. (That would be John, at 5.3%.)” Such unconscious gender bias pervades every aspect of women’s daily lives, and the fact that it was amplified on such a national media stage woke up a lot of women viewers. Omitting Simone’s name and identifying her by race was more than disrespectful. It irradiated disempowerment on what should have been the most momentous night of her life.
Understanding gender bias is essential for all women leaders who, are not only growing their career, but influencing the career of other women as well. The probability of rising up the corporate ladder, according to the studies conducted by The Harvard Business Review , are statistically zero if you are the only woman in the pool of finalists for a position. Although these studies sited by HBR were not peer reviewed, they do indicate more research is needed in regards to gender bias as we search for ways to ensure our subjective influences are not perpetuating a culture of the past. In Sheryl Sandberg’s book, Lean In, she shares a case study of Heidi Roizen, a successful venture capitalist. How did business students’ impressions of Heidi change when researchers swapped her first name with Howard? Howard was seen as more decisive, and nicer. Everyone wanted to be Howard’s friend..not so much for Heidi.
Unconscious bias is part of the human condition. Research confirms that we categorize things and people based on easily observed characteristics. This mental process allows us to process information and move on to using our brains for more complex tasks. Remember “One of these things is not like the others” from Sesame Street?
In order to diminish unconscious bias we must first recognize that it exists. One way to examine your unconscious bias tendencies is to take the Implicit Association Test. This test measures the strength of links you make between concepts, for example race or sexuality, and evaluation of stereotypes, such as whether those concepts are good or bad. Another way to diminish gender bias is to increase your exposure to bias. Seek out opportunities to declare intentions to be non-biased. Seek an accountability partner to discuss potential bias and talk through thoughts and judgments. At the end of the day culture will change when each of us identifies opportunities to diversify in our workplace and in our lives. Say Her Name. Well Done Simone Manuel!
