{"id":42644,"date":"2011-11-10T07:39:06","date_gmt":"2011-11-10T07:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jump.eu.com\/jup\/?p=42644"},"modified":"2016-11-14T09:05:35","modified_gmt":"2016-11-14T09:05:35","slug":"companies-need-break-spell-gender-stereotypes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jump.eu.com\/jup\/companies-need-break-spell-gender-stereotypes\/","title":{"rendered":"Companies need to break the spell of gender stereotypes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two weeks ago I wrote how a new study from Catalyst<\/a> highlighted that despite their best efforts, women see their careers evolve following performance criteria different from those of men. This is largely because women are judged by stereotypes. Forbes recently published an interesting article on the subject: the \u201c10 Worst Stereotypes About Powerful Women<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

There is no doubt that gender stereotyping in the workplace often leads to discrimination. Gender discrimination, undesirable in any form, can range from unequal pay for women for equal work, to being overlooked for promotion, and worse still, to sexual harassment. Such negative behaviour is still very prevalent in many of today\u2019s workplaces.<\/p>\n

But it is not only men who perpetuate such behaviour. Valerie Young, Ed.D., author of The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women<\/a> was quoted in Forbes as saying: \u201cWomen are being judged more, even by other women.\u201d The article goes on to point out that while male leaders can be complex characters, powerful women, by contrast, are categorised into stereotypes that serve only to undermine them and their power.<\/p>\n

Many of the stereotypes that Forbes lists are contradictory. It has often been said that women are always judged negatively no matter what they do.<\/p>\n

\u2013 You\u2019re either too emotional or you\u2019re an \u201cice queen\u201d.
\n\u2013 You\u2019re either too weak or you\u2019re too tough and angry.
\n\u2013 You\u2019re either too feminine or you\u2019re too masculine.
\n\u2013 You\u2019re either distracted by motherhood or you\u2019re single and lonely.
\n\u2013 You\u2019re either politically na\u00efve or you\u2019re scheming and manipulative.
\n\u2013 You don\u2019t have the skills, you are just there to fill the quota.
\n\u2013 You don\u2019t have any serious responsibilities. You are just a \u201ccheerleader\u201d for the \u201creal\u201d managers.<\/p>\n

Most people are not aware of how stereotyping automatically influences their thinking and, therefore, believe that their perceptions are based on objective observations. In his last editorial, the diversity expert, Michael Stuber<\/a> observes that: \u201cFor the dominant mainstream group many aspects are so implicit and given that they won\u2019t even consider anyone\u2019s responsibility for corporate cultural norms \u2013 let alone their own ability to change any aspect of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gender stereotyping leads to discrimination that unfairly challenges women\u2019s success in the workplace. Regulations alone are not enough to stop the problem so companies need to implement their own programmes.<\/p>\n

So what can organisations do to stamp out stereotyping? There are several courses of action that they could adopt:<\/p>\n

\u2013 Educating managers and employers on the detrimental effects of stereotyping.
\n\u2013 Teaching employees at all levels about stereotypes and placing them in gender-balanced groups.
\n\u2013 Implementing objective performance evaluation standards with clear rules explaining how evaluation criteria are measured.
\n\u2013 Portraying images that contradict stereotypes.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, it\u2019s the companies that suffer. Developing and retaining the best talent is key to remaining competitive in the global business world,\u201d said Ilene L. Lang, President of Catalyst back in 2005. \u201cUntil we break the spell of stereotyping, companies will continue to sub-optimize women and lose a vital talent pool\u2014one they, frankly, cannot afford to ignore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her words still ring true today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two weeks ago I wrote how a new study from Catalyst highlighted that despite their best efforts, women see their careers evolve following performance criteria different from those of men. This is largely because women are judged by stereotypes. Forbes recently published an interesting article on the subject: the \u201c10 Worst Stereotypes About Powerful Women\u201d. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jump.eu.com\/jup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42644"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jump.eu.com\/jup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jump.eu.com\/jup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jump.eu.com\/jup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jump.eu.com\/jup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42644"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/jump.eu.com\/jup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43951,"href":"http:\/\/jump.eu.com\/jup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42644\/revisions\/43951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jump.eu.com\/jup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jump.eu.com\/jup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jump.eu.com\/jup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42644"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jump.eu.com\/jup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=42644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}