Author and workplace culture expert, Jenny Segal on the concept of ‘Guilty Until Proven Innocent’ and how to grant women equal authority in the workplace.
Imagine two peers, equivalent in experience, expertise and competence. Professionally identical in every way, other than their gender and – crucially – how they are perceived by their colleagues. For their colleagues assume that the man knows what he’s doing until he messes up and is found out, and that the woman does not until she proves her worth.
We assume that the man is innocent until proven guilty, whilst the woman is guilty until she proves herself to be innocent. In a court of law this disparity would be outrageous and unthinkable. Why then is it accepted and commonplace in the workplace?
Tracing the roots of this unconscious bias is both fascinating and revealing. Starting in the field of psychology, there is a well-documented phenomenon which persists across ages, ethnicities and cultures whereby males consistently overestimate their abilities, whilst females consistently underestimate theirs.
The Male Hubris, Female Humility Problem
It is so well-recognised that it has a name: The Male Hubris, Female Humility Problem. And this belief is re-enforced by social conditioning, exemplified by the astonishing fact that parents are two-and-a-half times more likely to type into Google “Is my son gifted?” than “Is my daughter gifted?”.
Sadly, we have lower expectations of our daughters than of our sons from the get-go, despite girls consistently outperforming boys academically at school. Small wonder then that by the time we are adults in the workplace, we have a deep-seated belief that men deserve their seat at the table, whilst women are lucky to have theirs.
And so, we arrive at today’s frustrating situation, whereby women are not granted the authority that their experience and expertise merit. They are frequently misjudged, assumed to be more junior than their male colleagues, often excluded from a conversation entirely and sometimes not even afforded eye contact. All of this festers a deep sense of injustice and feeds imposter syndrome, which affects 54% of women compared with just 38% of men.
Women are routinely not listened to and spoken over, even when they are the acknowledged subject matter expert. They contribute ideas which are ignored until a male colleague repeats them – and is praised for them – moments later. Everyday plagiarism happens in plain sight, is overlooked and thus implicitly encouraged. We are even coining new expressions like ‘The Authority Gap’ and ‘mansplaining’ to call out our experiences.
Add to this the challenge that we don’t like it when women display alpha male traits. This is particularly problematic in a work environment because the very behaviours that are emblematic of good leadership in a man just don’t seem to sit right in a woman. Our perceptions are gender-dependant: whilst ambition and competitiveness in a man are positives, they are highly undesirable – and unfeminine – in a woman. Broadly, if a woman’s leadership style has masculine notes, she is condemned for it. Women are supposed to be nurturers. We are conditioned to dislike the dissonance.
Changing the narrative
To solve these problems, we need to change the narrative. We must tackle our unconscious biases, which involves recognising them, actively questioning them and then addressing them.
Perhaps we believe that mothers shouldn’t work, maybe because our own mother stayed at home and that’s what we knew. Or perhaps we’re worried that women just aren’t up to taking on senior roles, because we’re scared that they will show emotion that we don’t know how to handle. The trick is to catch ourselves in the act of making a biased judgement and to trace it back to where it comes from, questioning its validity and its power over our rational decision-making.
We can complement this meta-awareness by putting in place support mechanisms for women at work. Role models of both genders are extremely helpful, as is encouraging women to build a support network of industry colleagues.
But perhaps the most powerful way to address biases is via the social norm, making it apparent that it is unacceptable to treat women as inferiors.
And this is where male allyship is fundamental to success. There are many simple but highly effective ways in which male allies make a huge difference: by calling out sexist behaviour as and when it occurs, by speaking less, by giving credit where it is due, by proactively structuring projects so that women can shine.
If we truly value the diversity of thought and experience that women bring to the table, addressing our biases is not an option. It is essential for business success. And for those who are concerned about the paradox that, to initiate change, we need the proactive support of those in positions of power – largely the men who stand to lose their systemic advantage – I say that the stakes are worth it. Without change, we will disenfranchise and drive away half of our workforce. Bad things happen when good people do nothing.
