Say goodbye to sexism in the office, for real this time

Dan Shapiro had an epiphany in 2012 when he realised he had to do something about the pervasive sexism in his industry.

His moment of clarity occurred during an MIT conference in which Shapiro sat on a panel of experts discussing how to secure venture capital. The man introducing the panel detailed Shapiro’s successes. He’d worked for Microsoft and Google and launched several successful tech start-ups.

Then the man introduced the moderator. She was an accomplished entrepreneur and start-up expert. But he described her differently. He explained that she used to be a “sexy single woman” but that she’d recently gotten married, so she had “become a sexy married woman”.

“What he said was just shocking,” recalled Shapiro, who later blogged about it. “There was this realisation that sexism is a critical problem in my industry, and if I wasn’t working to solve it, then I was part of it.”

Shapiro was determined to make changes in his own workplace to create a more inclusive office. Now the CEO and founder of Glowforge, a 3-D laser printer start-up in Seattle, Shapiro approaches everything with this simple premise: what if we could create a workplace without bias?

If he can, he’ll be in the minority. New research released this year shows employers still have widespread biases that favour men over women, especially when it comes to understanding when an employee needs time to care for children.

Bosses often view female employees who need time away from the work for child care as less committed to their jobs, according to research by Robin Ely, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School in the US. That means women are less likely to be considered for advancement or promoted to management simply because they have children, even if they’re just as committed at work.

“Expectations and stereotypes are often imported into an organisation by people’s personal bias,” Ely said. “Women, who are more likely caring for children, are seen as not the ideal worker.”

But this stereotype isn’t based on truth, Ely found. Women are often just as committed to their jobs as their male counterparts, and men often want just as many allowances to care for their families as women are perceived to want.

And, a more inclusive office has all kinds of upsides, Ely said. Workers who believe everyone matters, despite their sex or race or other identifiers, are more likely to work hard, will be more loyal, and are generally going to be more interested in showing up. But management has to set that tone.

It’s up to managers to ensure that women with children are as valued as any other workers, said Karl Moore, associate professor of strategy and organisation at Desautels, the business school at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Part of that is a hyper-awareness on the part of managers. Many women will doubt they’re ready for advancement, especially in male-dominated workplaces, according to recent research. To counteract that confidence issue, a boss has to be aware it exists and then actively work to encourage women to shoot for a promotion. Do so, and you’ll will be more likely to retain talented workers, Moore said.

After that, it’s also up to male bosses to find women in senior positions who can mentor female staff members. Sure, a man can mentor women, but Moore said young female workers, in particular, will benefit from a woman who’s gone through the same things. And don’t believe the stereotype that women aren’t willing to help; a 2005 study on gender biases found women managers are often more supportive and rewarding.

In male-dominated workforces, research shows that women are less likely to voice their opinions outright, Moore said. That means managers must actively encourage women to speak up.

“You need to show you value their opinion,” Moore said. “Maybe say, ‘I think you should speak up at the next meeting because I like your ideas and I want to hear from you’.”

There are also small changes that companies can make to make workplaces more fair for both sexes, said Kathleen McQuiggan, senior vice president at Pax World Management investors in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and a former vice president at Goldman Sachs. McQuiggan runs an investment fund made up of companies that strive to value men and women equally.

Among those small changes, McQuiggan suggests companies shouldn’t schedule meetings during early morning hours, so that men and women staffers who have children have time to get them off to school. Express understanding when a worker “needs to take the foot off the gas” to care for a sick family member. Provide unconscious bias training for your entire department.

“Really thoughtful organisations figure out how to be successful while also making allowances for people who need to spend more time with their families,” McQuiggan said. “Good managers will ask: ‘How do I package jobs to work better for people?’.”

Ely argued that it’s often easy to make things more equal. Many companies operate on the assumption that workers should be available at all hours, making jobs difficult on mothers especially.

“We have this affliction where we believe jobs rely on being available 24-7, and often that’s just not true,” Ely said. “You have to get into the reality of what a job really takes.”

There’s also the reality that men and women do things differently, and bosses who operate under that belief and embrace these differences as valuable will be more effective, Shapiro said.

After his epiphany, Shapiro changed the way he hires. For starters, research shows women are often regarded negatively for negotiating starting salaries, while men are praised for requesting more money. So in response, Shapiro instituted a new policy where his company makes the best offer up front to eliminate this bias.

In response to that change and others, Shapiro said he believes he has developed a workplace with better morale and more loyalty. In the same way that a boss who laughs at a sexist joke sends a negative message, Shapiro said actions that support and promote gender equality sends a message that your workplace values everyone.

“To be inclusive sends a powerful message to people about how to behave,” Shapiro said.