Sep

Microaggressions: Dress Codes Double Standards And Other Subtle Ways Women Face Sexism At Work

admin

Pointing to a Harvard University study, Lowry noted that researchers have found a measurable negative impact from gender discrimination in the workplace.

It results in them receiving worse evaluations.

Subtle sexism results in women getting fewer opportunities at work. It hurts their performance. Fact, speaking to my own friends and colleagues about Pao’s case prompted a flood of similar stories. Of course, your potential boss a brand new job interview. Those notions will likely be on the basis of your gender presentation and whatever assumptions they have about that presentation. Also, they might use those assumptions to assess whether you’re appropriate for the job without referencing or considering your actual qualifications. With all that said… I’d say if you’re a mother and soft spoken, they might assume you’ll be kind, ‘nonaggressive’, nurturing, and quick to ‘caretake’ folks in the office. Descriptive biases are the prejudices you might encounter on the basis of the stereotypes created by our culture to describe your identity.

Describing the phenomenon in an article for Fast Company, Eric Jaffe explained that for women these assumptions often rely on the notion that They are caring, warm, deferential, emotional, sensitive, and so on -traits consistently used to describe women for decades.

Rather than accessing an unique person’s actual ability, jaffe went on to point out that this often leads employers to judge women on whether they fit or perform well in a given position depending on sexist stereotypes that inform how they perceive women mostly.

While deciding to chose a man for the spot instead as long as men are just more math oriented, as a woman, that might mean your boss passes over you for a mathheavy promotion that is seemingly in the bucket.

These traits are highly valued amongst men so that’s the subtle type sexism the majority of the people I’ve spoken with have experienced. These small acts of sexism are called microaggressions. You’re telling her that this is not something women are good at it and reminding her that she is in constant competition with other women in the office, when you tell a woman she did a very nice work coding that website for a woman. Women in an office environment should be expected to don any combination of heels, makeup, pulled together hair absent of gray, and fitted outfits. In a less subtle kind of discrimination, dress codes can go beyond unspoken rules and even be codified in employee handbooks and policies. Therefore, much like Ellen Pao, the discrimination many women face in the workplace is subtle and difficult to prove.

It’s the daily reminder that your gender impacts every aspect of your job and how you are perceived in doing it -while your actual performance is no more than an afterthought.