“She’s attractive…and smart too!”
These 5 words follow me everywhere I go; the look and awe on the faces of the businessmen forever etched into my memory. They are the result of a society that allows people to think that it’s OK to treat women differently in a working environment. Business owners, managers, co-workers…people on all levels within a business are conditioned to think that women – especially women of colour – are under qualified, unable, and could never be attractive AND smart. Having experienced attitudes like this in previous jobs, I am passionate about battling against stereotypes and biases in my legal career.
In order to tackle these gendered views it is important to educate others on the root cause of these stereotypes; which I believe to be unconscious bias.
Unconscious bias is defined as the thoughts and beliefs which operate outside of our conscious awareness. In a bid to make sense of the world, and quickly, our own brain can betray the most liberal of us by teaching us to be wary of those that do not reflect our own image. In the very backs of our minds, our brain scrambles to make unfounded connections in order to make sense of this crazy world without being overwhelmed by information. This response, which has been integral to human survival and evolution, has been carried with us into recent years. The reflex has been intensified further by media influence and societal conditioning, which likes to feed us with salient sexist and racist article headlines.
Unfortunately, whether we like it or not, these biases are instilled in our unconscious mind in early childhood; they then get be carried with us in our social lives. According to a survey run by the Independent, British people will spend 3,507 days at work in their lifetime and sadly, despite equality being enshrined in the law, these biases often make their way into the workplace.
These biases can then take root in the workplace culture.
This can result in micro-aggression, bias in recruitment and women being forced to work harder to prove themselves for promotions or to simply earn the respect that they deserve. Recent statistics from the UN show how harrowing the discrimination can be when these biases fester; their most recent “Gender Social Norms” index analysed biases and found that globally, 50% of men said that they had more right to a job than women.
The good news is there are active steps that businesses and law firms can take to reduce these implicit biases.
One step that I feel strongly about is Unconscious Bias Training, which we’ve decided to start during Culture Week.
This type of training is created to raise people’s awareness and can provide them with tools to address and interrupt their own unconscious biases. By bringing these thoughts to the forefront of the consciousness, individuals can challenge themselves by utilising the skills picked up in training. By pushing our people out of their comfort zones and encouraging them to slow down their thought process, the business is inviting not only personal growth, but is creating an increasingly welcoming work environment for a more diverse workforce. According to a Gallup study from back in 2014, “men and women have different viewpoints, ideas, and market insights, which enables better problem solving”; this study is just one of many pieces of proof that diversity can help a business.
In summary, a one-off Unconscious Bias Training will not solve all gendered workplace problems, but I invite businesses to hold trainings, meetings and discussions, and encourage their employees to confront these uncomfortable topics. In the words of Malcolm Gladwell; “acknowledging and understanding this implicit response and its value and role is critical to informed decision-making and is particularly critical to those whose decisions must embody fairness and justice”. Fairness and justice are the cornerstones of the legal profession.
Not only does tacking unconscious bias bode well for a business’s finances and success, but by pushing back against archaic attitudes, law firms can reclaim their role as harbingers for bringing change for the better.