CHAPTER 29
Stop “Protecting” Women from Challenging Work
by Kristen Jones and Eden King
A 2016 poll by the Pew Research Center suggests that more than half of men think sexism is a thing of the past. In contrast, only about one-third of women agree. One reason for the disagreement may stem from misunderstandings about the kinds of behavior that constitute sexism. Indeed, an important body of research conducted by Susan Fiske of Princeton and Peter Glick of Lawrence University demonstrates that prejudice toward women can take obvious and not-so-obvious forms.1 Both forms are destructive. But our research shows that this latter “benevolent” form of sexism is exceptionally damaging, particularly in the workplace. It primarily manifests itself in two ways.
First, much like the way anxious new parents shield their children from potentially harmful situations, managers often see women as being in need of protection, so they limit their exposure to risky or challenging work. For example, surveys of men and women in the oil and gas and health care industries show that women received fewer challenging developmental work opportunities than men.2 Both men and women, however, reported comparable levels of interest in engaging in these assignments. Follow-up experiments confirmed that managers who engage in benevolent sexism “protected” women from challenging assignments and instead gave the work to men. While this may have seemed nice on the surface, these behaviors actually made it more difficult for women to advance.
Second, women are less likely to get constructive criticism and more likely to receive unsolicited offers for help. But although well-intentioned, such attempts to protect or coddle women can undermine their self-confidence. In the earlier-mentioned survey, supervisors gave female managers less negative feedback than their male counterparts. But constructive criticism has been found to be essential for increased performance and learning. (For tips on how to give fair feedback, see the sidebar “Improving Feedback for Women.”)
In another experiment, fake teammates told some under graduate participants who were working on a task, “Let me help you with this. I know this kind of thing can be hard for some girls/guys.”3 Both male and female participants who were treated in this “benevolent” manner felt worse about their own ability than participants who were not helped. A separate survey of working adults reported in the same paper confirmed these findings. This type of patronizing yet seemingly positive behavior undermines self-efficacy: It is assumptive (rather than requested), it implies that its recipient is dependent on (rather than autonomous from) the provider of support, and it is asserted didactically (rather than negotiated through discussion). Importantly, women are more likely to be the recipients of this type of unwanted help and therefore are more likely to suffer its negative consequences.
IMPROVING FEEDBACK FOR WOMEN
by Shelley Correll and Caroline Simard
Managers can improve the feedback they give and start leveling the playing field at the team level with a few simple steps:
- Before you begin evaluations, either written or verbal, outline the specific criteria you are employing to evaluate individuals. Articulate the specific results or behaviors that would demonstrate mastery. Use the same criteria for all employees at this level.
- Set a goal to discuss three specific business outcomes with all employees. If you can’t think of those outcomes for a particular employee, dig deeper or ask the employee or their peers to provide more details.
- Systematically tie feedback—either positive or developmental—to business and goals outcomes. If you find yourself giving feedback without relating it to outcomes (such as, “People like working with you”), ask yourself whether you can further tie the feedback to specific results (such as, “You are effective at building team outcomes. You successfully resolved the divide between the engineering team and the product team on which features to prioritize in our last sprint, leading us to ship the product on time”).
- When evaluating people in similar roles, equalize references to technical accomplishments and capability. Notice when detail is lacking for a particular employee, and make an extra effort to determine whether something, either a skill or a developmental need, has been missed.
- Strive to write reviews of similar lengths for all employees. This helps ensure a similar level of detail—and therefore of specifics—for everyone.
These small wins, or what we call micro-sponsorship actions, offer pathways to equal access to leadership.
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Shelley Correll is a professor of sociology and organizational behavior at Stanford University, the Barbara D. Finberg Director of the Clayman Institute for Gender Research, and the Faculty Director of the Center for the Advancement of Women’s Leadership. Caroline Simard is senior research director at the Center for the Advancement of Women’s Leadership at Stanford University.
Adapted from “Research: Vague Feedback Is Holding Women Back” on hbr.org, April 29, 2016 (product #H02UUL)
Yet many of these problems have clear solutions. Attempts to support women at work may be most effective when they occur in response to a request, when they enable rather than restrict autonomy, and when they are negotiated through discussion. For example, rather than assuming that a woman would say no to an assignment involving travel, just ask her. Instead of telling a woman she should take an extended maternity leave, inquire as to how long she would like to take. When attempting to support female employees, managers should think carefully about how and why they are motivated to do so, whether they would support a male employee in the same manner, and what implicit message their behavior is sending to the woman.
Does this mean chivalry is dead? No. All people like to be treated with courtesy and respect. But it does mean that some behaviors—those that are patronizing, overly protective, and unsolicited—can be harmful. Women can get by with a little less of this kind of help from their colleagues.
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Kristen Jones is an assistant professor of management in the Fogelman College of Business and Economics at the University of Memphis. Her research focuses on identifying and remediating subtle bias that unfairly disadvantages diverse employees at work, particularly women and mothers. Eden King is an associate professor of Psychology at Rice University and an associate editor of the Journal of Management and the Journal of Business and Psychology. She has published more than 100 scholarly works related to discrimination, including the book How Women Can Make It Work: The Science of Success.
NOTES
1. Peter Glick and Susan T. Fiske, “An Ambivalent Alliance: Hostile and Benevolent Sexism as Complementary Justifications for Gender Inequality,” American Psychologist 56, no. 2 (February 2001): 109–118.
2. Eden B. King et al., “Benevolent Sexism at Work: Gender Differences in the Distribution of Challenging Developmental Experiences,” Journal of Management 38, no. 6 (November 1, 2012): 1835–1866.
3. Kristen Jones, et al., “Negative Consequences of Benevolent Sexism on Efficacy and Performance,” Gender in Management: An International Journal 29, no. 3 (2014): 171–189.
Adapted from content posted on hbr.org, September 9, 2016 (product #H034DE)