This research report is aimed at a business audience. A survey of corporate leaders was conducted, asking them to rate men and women leaders against ten essential leadership behaviours. It found that senior management perceive different strengths between the genders which correspond to commonly identified stereotypes, especially in terms of women being better "caretakers" and men being better at "taking charge".Women believe they are better than men at problem solving, but men hold the opposite opinion, and greatly outnumber women at senior management level. The authors believe this fact limits perceptions of women's interpersonal power, and thus chances of promotion.The report discusses why stereotypical thinking is problematic, and identifies factors which influence stereotyping of female leaders, including whether they work in male-dominated industries or roles. Senior managers who themselves report directly to female managers were found to be more likely to hold stereotyped views of women, suggesting that exposure to women leaders is not enough to reverse the phenomenon.The report recommends that companies institute more objective evaluation and succession planning policies, including increased clarity and specificity of measures used, as well as education of management on stereotypes and the showcasing of successful female leaders
This bibliography is a quick reference of abstracts on ways to improve women’s career paths within organisations. We have referenced 117 items, organised them into seven topic areas, and provided a brief summary of each item. Articles covering more than one topic have been included in each relevant area.
Building on the research used on Realising the opportunity, we have included other papers which contained significant data or analysis. We have also added in reports which contain concrete proposals for action or recommendations, and information on New Zealand.
We hope Inspiring Action will make it easier for human resources practitioners and managers, Chief Executive Officers and leadership teams, to identify practical steps to take to improve women’s career pathways in organisations. To find articles, use the search function below or download the full report.
2005
Area of focus:
Unconscious Bias
2007
Area of focus:
Unconscious Bias
This report builds on previous Catalyst studies into stereotyped perceptions of women's leadership abilities. It outlines the concept of stereotyping, as well as the trend of associating effective leadership with male stereotypes. The assumption that male and female characteristics are mutually exclusive is argued to create a false dichotomy placing both men and women in narrow, prescribed categories which limit their effectiveness. The report describes three "double-bind" dilemmas faced by women: extreme perceptions, where they are seen as "too hard" or "too soft" but never "just right"; a high competency threshold, where women are required to meet higher standards than men, for lower rewards; and the "competent but disliked" dilemma, where women may be seen as competent or personable, but rarely both. Each dilemma is illustrated with statements taken from a study of managers in Europe and the United States.Interviews were conducted with female managers at a major global corporation, to determine the prevalence of these dilemmas, and to determine actions individuals and organisations can take to correct them. The Catalyst Stereotypes Diagnostic Instrument is described, a tool available through Catalyst's website which provides users with a Stereotype Risk Score based on factors within their organisation.
2014
Area of focus:
Unconscious Bias
This magazine-format publication consists primarily of a paper describing the nature and prevalence of unconscious bias, companies' "organisational unconscious", and methods of dealing with bias in the workplace.It presents steps to identify biases, and provides 10 strategies to combat them effectively. Side-bars provide case studies of two companies which have implemented measures to counteract biases, as well as a spotlight article on how micro-affirmations can be used to build cohesion in organisations and a discussion of the Level Playing Field Institute's Corporate Leavers Survey, which examined employee's reasons for leaving their work roles and which identified "perceived unfairness" as a major contributor to their decision to leave.
2009
Area of focus:
Unconscious Bias
Based on data collected from 110 corporations and interviews with a selection of talent management experts, this report examines how gender bias is introduced into and perpetuated within talent management systems. It presents a model of the interactions of various roles within the talent management process, discussing the potential for cascading effects.Several issues are identified and discussed, including instances where the norms modelled by senior leadership are adopted by junior employees, where talent managers ascribe male-stereotyped behaviours to ideal leadership candidates, and where high-visibility projects are assigned inequitably. Gaps between the design and execution of these systems can introduce gender bias even in systems designed to be sensitive to the problem, as few companies have effective checks embedded in their processes. A wide range of strategies and recommendations are made to mitigate this process, and case studies of successful programmes are presented.
Hard won and easily lost: The fragile status of leaders in gender-stereotype-incongruent occupations
2014
Area of focus:
Unconscious Bias
This short report describes an experimental research study into unconscious bias in perceptions of leaders in occupations dominated by the opposite gender. The authors asked subjects to rate the status and competence of fictitious leaders of both genders, in both stereotypically male and stereotypically female roles, and in cases where the leader had either made a mistake or had not. They found that subjects rate men and women leaders who have made no mistakes equally highly, regardless of whether they are working a "man's" or "women's" role, but that leaders making mistakes in a stereotype-incongruent role are evaluated significantly less favourably than those making mistakes in stereotype-congruent ones.The results support the "glass cliff" theory, suggesting that the success and status of leaders in occupations traditionally dominated by the opposite gender is fragile and easily undermined.
2011
Area of focus:
Action, Unconscious Bias
This website presents a series of simple word association and reaction tests which assess the user's degree of unconscious bias within given parameters. The site contains free demonstration tests on the subjects of gender, race, age, weight, etc., with more tests available to users who register. It functions as a simple and effective way of discovering one's own pre-existing biases.
2014
Area of focus:
Unconscious Bias
Following a series of conferences and consultations on the topic of women in leadership, the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) published this document summarising the issues raised.Australia is argued to be falling behind the rest of the world in terms of gender diversity within business. Speakers from the series discuss underlying issues such as women's labour force participation, the gender pay gap, unconscious bias in the workplace and organisational culture. Excerpts are quoted from roundtable discussions, highlighting attitudes to women's role in Australian society, women's attitudes to other women at work, and men's views on women in leadership and unconscious bias.Case studies of two private companies and one Australian state government are provided to illustrate actions undertaken, and recommendations are made by CEDA along three themes of creating the business case within organisations, changing organisational cultures, and workplace actions.
2014
Area of focus:
Unconscious Bias
This brief article is aimed at a business audience, and examines the invisible barriers holding women back. Structural barriers have largely been overcome through formal processes within companies, but women who leave companies in mid-career still refer to issues such as "politics" or "the organisation" in exit interviews, which may indicate unconscious bias and unhelpful mind-sets within the business.Examples are provided of commonly occurring biases. The authors argue that companies must develop their own version of the business case, based on an assessment of the contribution and potential of women within the organisation, and that leaders must drive change after first evaluating their own mind-sets. Mind-sets are best combated with rigorous performance data, as well as comparing men's and women's answers to bottom-up staff surveys. The article includes a discussion of which sponsorship styles help and hinder women, and examples drawn from the experiences of US business leaders are provided throughout.
2014
Area of focus:
Unconscious Bias
An academic journal article discussing the wage gap between the sexes in the United States, where women currently earn an average of 77 cents to men's dollar. The author considers an argument that the gap represents a difference in productivity at work due to women's assumption of higher workloads at home after marriage; while this may account for some of the discrepancy, a comparison of unwed women's wages with those of unwed men still demonstrates a gap of 93 cents to the male dollar.The author cites research evidence of an unconscious bias which causes people of either gender to rate equivalent work of women as being of lower value than that of men. Employers set salaries based on the estimated productive potential of a new recruit, and as employers are fallible to bias these estimates are argued to maintain the pay gap between the genders.
2012
Area of focus:
Unconscious Bias
This report summarises analysis conducted by the University of Melbourne's Gender Equality Project on 84 studies into unconscious bias, conducted over the past 35 years and from a variety of countries.Two types of bias are examined in this research: gender evaluation bias, where women are systematically devalued relative to men performing equivalent work to an equivalent standard, and gender backlash bias, where low evaluations occur as "reprisals" against women who behave in a counter-stereotypical (e.g. masculine or agentic) manner.Using meta-analysis the authors find overall trends that women are judged to be less likeable, less agentic and less competent than men displaying the same behaviours or levels of performance, as well as being judged less desirable as leaders, hireable, and likely to succeed. These effects were observed when both men and women behaved in a stereotypically masculine way, and were more pronounced in male-dominated professions.The conclusion recommends organisations take action at four levels, from awareness-building among individual workers to making macro-organisational changes in culture. The authors argue that workers should be encouraged to engage in more"slow thinking", avoiding fast judgements through stereotypes, and that systems within organisations should be audited to detect embedded bias.