Is there any way to know for sure whether something that someone did—or neglected to do—is rooted in sexism? When is confronting that person worth it? And if you’ll never know what drove their actions, how do you make peace with the uncertainty? Amy G talks through these questions with two professors who study perceptions and gender stereotypes.
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You'Re listening to Women at Work from Harvard Business Review.
I'm Amy Gallo.
Hosting this podcast has driven home one of the frustrating but true realities of workplace cultures.
Sexism is everywhere, from people's expectations about how women look and act to companies inadequate or unfair parental leave policies.
It also shows up in the assignments and feedback and ratings that managers give us, or the credit and promotions and raises that they don't.
But knowing that sexism is everywhere doesn't soften the shock when it happens to you, like when somebody interrupts you over and over or takes credit for your idea in a meeting, or when you receive an end of year rating that just doesn't align with your actual performance.
A lot of sexism is insidious, not blatant, which means it can be tough to discern whether something a colleague or a client did or didn't do is in fact because of bias.
And that can lead to a lot of self doubt.
So if in some cases, maybe most, we'll never know what drove their actions.
How do we make peace with that uncertainty?
And when is confronting that person about the potential bias worth our energy?
Two women who study gender stereotypes and unconscious bias are here to talk through these questions with me.
Katie Kaufman is an economist and professor at Harvard Business School, where she studies how stereotypes impact our beliefs about ourselves.
Michelle De Guid is a professor at Cornell and the school's Associate Dean of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging.
Michelle Katie, thank you so much for joining us.
Great to be here.
Thanks for having us.
This is a big topic and I'm so excited to have both of your minds on this.