I have been teaching a class on Critical Decision Making, which explores in great detail the impact of bias and stereotypes in business as well as in our private lives. We take a deep look at the “anatomy of the way we make decision”.
In my world of gender integration understanding and analyzing how our brain works as it pertains to decision making in the context of gender is vital.
A very interesting article (study)-published in VOX on September 9th, of a piece of research conducted by workforce analytic Visier, Why the genders wage Gap explodes when women hit their 30’s? suggest that women’s compensation is most adversely impacted when they are starting families or raising children.
The study looks at why women suffer this impact at this time in their lives.
Research by the Journal of American Sociology shows that the job application process can discriminate against mothers. They were viewed as less competent and offered less compensation and opportunities for advancement, even though the resumes with their male counterpart’s showed the same competencies and skill.
So let’s that a look at how focusing illusions works so you can prevent this bias from impacting your decision making. People will make judgments based on their attention to only a subject of available information to overweight that information and to underweight unattended information. In other words we focus on one specific piece of data or information and come to a conclusion without looking at ALL the variables and circumstances around the issue…more so, we dismiss other available information.
There is a cultural tendency by both men and women to “assume” that young women will not show or be as committed to work as they will be to family, (this is the focusing illusion). This is the assumption we need to challenge.
What is the antidote to fight this assumption? Ask, talk, observe, educate your young women and get to know them well enough to understand who and what they want to be in the organization. You will be surprised to see , in the majority of cases, how your assumptions were wrong.
ALL of us are subjected to this process. All of us have these propensities. What we need to do is become aware so we do not allow for a quick response to situations like this one, automatically assuming that young women will not be as committed or interested in more opportunities. We run the risk of attrition, loss of engagement and ultimately potential derailment of high performers.
I hope this article drives you to learn more about biases and stereotypes. Can You Afford to ignore them?
By Elisabet Rodriguez Dennehy