Watch your gap and track changes: 3. Less diversity into workplaces drives less opportunities and 26% less return on invested capital

The bigger the salary gap between men and women, the bigger the unconscious bias. We will dive deeper into data and look beyond to understand their meaning and outcome. How many opportunities did we miss out by being rigid and less diverse? Biases and gaps are rooted in every country or culture and need to be addressed accordingly. 

What’s your gap and what’s behind it?

According to Eurostat, Romania is the second country with the smallest pay gap between men and women (3.3%) after Luxembourg. At the highest end is Estonia with a gap of 21.7%. There is still a salary gap, talent gap, leadership gap, and many other gaps between genders. Therefore, we need to become more aware of our unconscious biases to bridge all these gaps. History cannot be changed and there are situations that need time to be tackled only because they are in deep connection with our minds, culture, education, and what surrounds us. 

In Romania, ‘millennials’ argue that ‘boomers’ are uneducated, sexist, and homophobic, but not long ago it was against the law to be in a same-sex relationship. Also, not long ago, the Communists transformed the 8th of March into a celebration of motherhood and femininity from a celebration of women's rights. Moreover, the topic of sex and gender was forbidden in education starting from the ’40s until the ’80s. People born in the ’40s and ’50s are more biased than their counterparts from the ‘80s and the ’90s. There is no easy way one can be instantly educated regardless of how much proof and facts are shown. A mentality shift takes time, but history explains some inequalities.

All inequalities are caused by other disparities and it’s like a snowball effect. Obviously, we are all influenced by history, but we need to take a mindful leap into the present and start working on ourselves, on our families, our workplaces, and choose leaders able to set healthy examples. We need to focus on changes here and now and rethink our behavior in a way to create more equal societies. Imagining a future without inequalities starts with ourselves and our biases. 

How can we tackle gender bias in our workplace? 

Most of us know this, but some might not be aware: positive discrimination is not legal in workplaces. What does that mean? It means we cannot favor or intentionally include or exclude hiring someone based on their gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other similar criteria. Simply put, we need to focus on equal opportunities based on skills and experience, not on other variables. Similarly, when excluding a person because of their gender, it is illegal to favor a person based on their gender. We need to better educate ourselves to avoid our personal biases affecting our judgment and decisions. If you want to find out how you can start approaching this, read one of my previous articles about unconscious biases. 

It is also essential to challenge our processes by analyzing what is subject to biases and start correcting them. Companies offering HR management services are highly specialized in training and consultancy on improving the hiring process and ensuring equal opportunities. Having worked in the HR industry helped me better comprehend the importance of developing a more inclusive behavior, processes, and creating safer workplaces, and building stronger employer brands. 

Women’s career choices can be adversely impacted by unconscious biases 

According to the study ‘Women at work: how organizational features impact career development’, the main mechanisms that prevent women from making the same career choices as men are: ‘a) implicit bias decreases the odds that women will enter and perform in male-dominated job levels or organizations, (b) glass cliff effects make career development less attractive for women, (c) Queen Bee effect prevent women in leadership from acting as role models for other women, and (d) some work-family approaches imply that women have to give up family life to be successful in their professional career.’

Women are suffering from double-bind bias by being automatically expected to be more likable and nurturing. Often when a woman is assertive and forthright, she is not appreciated and is often labeled as ‘too bossy’. However, both views are making it difficult for women to get a leadership position and if they do, they are considered less capable than men. 

Another bias largely seen within some women is that they tend to embed the misogyny and become biased against other women - Queen Bee syndrome. Most of the organizations create expectations around behavior and performance indicators when considering promotions that encourage masculinity - such beliefs encourage women to display a more masculine attitude and traits. That’s why sometimes we see women in leadership positions developing bullying behavior towards their women subordinates. 

In contrast, it has been shown so far within several studies that more inclusive and diverse companies gain better profit and financial stability when they have gender-balanced leadership and management teams. Diverse companies ‘reported 16% more return on sales, and 26% more return on invested capital’. 

In the research ‘Women at work: how organizational features impact career development’ the authors propose relevant ways organizations can benefit from more gender inclusivity. They stated that ‘having women represented in strategic leadership positions helps companies to penetrate new markets by catering to different customers and suppliers’, ‘gender-mixed management teams display more creativity and innovation, and can engage in more effective problem solving, due to the presence of different perspectives’, ‘female researchers in male-dominated fields yield novel insights that develop science and industry’.

However, behavioral science proposed an understanding of how employees and organizations influence each other, and support organizations to become more inclusive for women and for women to better demonstrate their contribution to organizational success. Breaking the patterns that maintain these biases is the only way to better seize the situations.

1. What organizations can do to become more inclusive

• Acknowledge and correct for implicit bias
• Keep statistics to monitor gender representation
• Encourage women to state their ambitions
• Welcome diversity as an organizational asset

2. What women can do to feel more comfortable

• Learn to recognize implicit bias
• Ask about specific performance criteria
• Find people who can support your ambitions
• Focus on the benefits of combining work and family roles

On our way to making a great vision become reality, we need to make room for both authenticity and unity. Join us in simplifying life through innovation. 

Happy women’s history month

This month we celebrated women and their footprint across the world. At Linnify we showed our support and appreciation to the bold, the bright, the authentic, the strong, and hard-working [wo]men in tech. For that, we shared our ladies’ stories. Follow us to read them all.