“It’s not about the sisters, it’s about the system!”
“It’s not about the women, it’s about the workforce!”
This is what I say to my clients and audiences.
But which bits exactly? What does this really mean?
It means that women should not have to shoulder the burden of inequity by working harder, being better, or changing who they are to fit in.
It means that we have to recognise where the system is failing women who are already working hard, are already good enough and do not need to change their personality to get ahead.
But what does that really mean????? Where is the system failing women?
It means this:
Lack of transparency in hiring – System Fail!
Without clear recruitment processes people give jobs to mates, which means other equally qualified and appropriate candidates not in those social networks, never even get to the starting line.
Uninterrupted career history – System Fail!
Research by Dr. Terry Fitzsimmons showed that people most likely to be promoted to CEO, CIO and CFO could demonstrate an uninterrupted career history – until men start taking equal parental leave, women will be left with ‘career interruptions’ and will never be able to meet this criteria, no matter how qualified they are.
No part-time Executives– System Fail!
If women can only progress if they can work full- time, they can never hope to be in the C-suite. Until men share the child caring and home management, women will have to make do with jobs that offer part-time only, no matter how capable they are.
Meetings before 9am and after 3pm – System Fail!
Women do the bulk of child care, which means school pick up and drop, which means women will miss out on those meetings along with the opportunity to make an impact.
Proving merit – System Fail!
If women have to have a certain number of years experience in a role or industry in order to ‘qualify’ for the next level, we will never get women into male-dominated roles they have never occupied before. Think about it. It doesn't make sense. You can't be the first woman astronaut if you have to have had 3 successful missions to Mars before you get hired. Merit must be based on an appropriate amount of transferable skills that would allow them to do a job they had not ‘done before’.
When it comes to gender equity, the most elusive part of the problem is the invisibility of the real problem – the second-generation bias that pushes implicit bias underground. This kind of bias is the policy and procedure and the ‘way we do things around here’ that gets woven into the fabric of the organisational culture.
Not hiring a woman because she is pregnant, or not promoting a woman because ‘she might have kids soon’, is a clear example of explicit bias. It’s overt, it’s obvious, it’s undeniable. And that makes it easier to spot, and arguably easier to address.
Implicit bias however remains in the shadows. Hard to spot until someone deliberately shines a torch on it. It’s time to get our torches out and shine a spotlight on the hidden obstacles for women. Those that are stuck in the systems, ingrained in our cultures and waiting to create confusion about what’s really going on for women at work.