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Ways to break the bias in the workplace

Martin Luther King said “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.”

Inspired by his words, to celebrate International Women’s Day, we are sharing 31 ways to #breakthebias in the workplace and move towards a gender equal world, that is free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination.

In this way we hope to inspire more people to make (or keep making) the change and feel able to challenge bias when they experience it so that together we can move towards a more diverse, equitable and inclusive world, where difference is celebrated.

Let us know which you’ll try or what you’d add to the list of 31 ways to #breakthebias and feel free to tag on twitter @jennifergarrett

  1. Flip it – Have you heard a woman being referred to as a ‘working Mum’? I am guessing the answer is yes, but how often do you hear men referred to as a ‘working Dad?’ If it can’t be flipped don’t say it. See @ManWhoHasItAll parody twitter account to highlights the double standards and bias that exists in society
  2. Read ‘Invisible Women’ by Caroline Criado Perez, a book filled with eye opening data that will help you understand bias in a world designed by men
  3. Sponsor a female colleague. A sponsors role is support and advise as well as advocate for you in key meetings and conversations. Sponsors have the potential to create career opportunities and open doors.
  4. ‘One and done’ is not enough, recruiting one woman to the top table and thinking the work is done is not enough to make change happen. According to research women need to make up 30% of the Board table before they have enough critical mass to help make boardrooms more collaborative and less hierarchical.
  5. Use an intersectional lens.   Consider the diversity of women in your organisation. The minority within the minority, are some women having it harder than others? What is the experience of Black women, women who identify as having a disability, or from the LGBTQ+ community.
  6. Listen – Ask women about their experience and obstacles they face and act on their recommendations
  7. Flexibility – create the ability for ALL roles to be part time and role model it from the top
  8. Start at home – who does the housework, the lion’s share of the caring and household admin? Have you got the balance right and what is this balance role modelling to others?
  9. Celebrate female breadwinners. Women out-earn male partners in almost a quarter of households, up from a fifth 16 years ago, according to research by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on behalf of Royal London, the mutual insurer. Rather than stigmatising them negatively as alpha females. Reading Rocking Your Role, the guide to success for female breadwinners to understand their experience.
  10. Stop judging women on their personal style rather than their outcomes. Research has shown that it is 66% more likely to happen for women in their performance reviews
  11. Promote women on the potential they show rather than track record, so they don’t have to prove themselves over and over again. Learn more about prove it again bias here
  12. Create inclusive work environments where women don’t feel they must hide motherhood to be considered serious about their career
  13. Stop judging women leaders more harshly than male leaders. Termed the glass cliff women who manage to break through the glass ceiling to achieve senior leadership positions traditionally reserved for men (such as CEO or Chair of the Board) find themselves in a precarious position—women in leadership positions attract greater scrutiny and are judged more harshly on their performance compared with male peers and are more likely to be fired.
  14. Stop falling foul of affinity bias and recruiting in your own image. You’ll end up with group think and a lack of creativity.
  15. Be a pioneer. Just because a woman has never been in the role before doesn’t mean that it can’t be done
  16. Stop stagnating women’s careers when they are parents, their contribution is valuable when they are parents and when they are not, According to You Gov nearly 2 in 5 mothers say having children had a negative impact on their career.
  17. Amplify the voice of the only woman in the room, by picking up on her points and ensuring she is heard
  18. Don’t leave the office housework to women, such as admin tasks, making the tea, supporting colleagues, and if she does do these tasks, make sure that she gets credit for them.
  19. Notice who gets the stretch assignments and more interesting projects, are you giving everyone an opportunity?
  20. Ask for feedback specifically on your bias and be prepared to change
  21. Make sure women are in the room when you are making decisions, so you don’t end up creating solutions that only work for 50% of the population
  22. Collate data on the recruitment, retention, career trajectory of your female staff, as well as the intersection of their identities.
  23. Do exit interviews to understand what you could do better
  24. Don’t burden women with shifting the dial on gender balance in your organisation, on top of their day job, be prepared to do the work yourself
  25. Tune into the challenges women face in work and in society, keep in touch with world affairs, watch documentaries, listen to podcasts etc
  26. Respect and appreciate difference, so that women don’t feel that they must adopt certain behaviours to succeed
  27. Believe them – if you dismiss a woman who says that she is experiencing bias in the workplace, you’ve missed an opportunity for change
  28. Set public targets for female representation at all levels of your business – what gets measured, gets done
  29. Notice and challenge microaggressions like ‘stop being so emotional’ or ‘I find you aggressive’ when women are being passionate, and challenge them
  30. Complete the implicitly test to check your bias. The Implicit Association Test (IAT) measures attitudes and beliefs that people may be unwilling or unable to report. The IAT may be especially interesting if it shows that you have an implicit attitude that you did not know about. For example, you may believe that women and men should be equally associated with science, but your automatic associations could show that you (like many others) associate men with science more than you associate women with science
  31. Don’t just think internally in your organisation, seek out diverse suppliers too.

About the author: Jenny Garrett OBE is a Coach & Leadership development consultant. She is an experienced facilitator of programmes for managers, Directors and CEOs from a variety of organisations, including private and public sector. Prior to this she held senior Marketing Roles for organisations such as Ashridge Business School, Hamptons International and Schroder Leasing. Jenny’s specialist areas include:

Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging – ‘no longer counting people, but making people count’, exploring and appreciating difference, culture and beliefs to provide the best organisational solutions.

Leadership coaching – providing the challenge and support that can be missing for executives at the most senior levels of an organisation to keep them on track.

Team performance – through team coaching, enabling improved lines of communication, increased self-awareness and an understanding of others perceptions.

Jenny was awarded OBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours 2021 for services to Entrepreneurship and Women in Business. She has a Masters Degree MA (Management Learning & Leadership) Lancaster University. BA Honours Business, University of Westminster and Coaching Qualifications with Ashridge Business School and Lancaster University. She has the highest honorary award of ‘ Companion’ from the Institute of Leadership and Management.

This article has been kindly repurposed and you can read the original here: 31 Ways to Break the Bias in the workplace