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WITI CAREERS
Gender Differences in the Workplace
Challenges and Barriers for Women
It doesn't take more than a few seconds for the women attending a workshop to begin listing these challenges on a flip chart. The discussion is hot, rich, intense and enlivening. For women, the list gets long and longer, sometimes up to 60 challenges; however, women consistently experience these top five challenges:
Dismissed: This doesn't mean that everyone doesn't experience being dismissed, perhaps even quite often. What the women say is that they are dismissed because of their gender and their different, yet authentic, style. In a classic scenario, a woman raises an issue or makes a point at a meeting and is ignored, but when a man then restates it, everyone pays attention and addresses the issue. Research continually shows that women are interrupted and/or dismissed in public, in boardrooms and in general gender-mixed discussions many more times than men. Tested: The typical scenario goes like this: "I walk in with my male associate (who happens to report to me), and it is immediately assumed that he is my boss. Not only that, but even when they figure out that I am the boss, I have to go through this boring process of being tested on whether I know my stuff, how I made it to the top, do I have the 'right' experience, etc." Everyone has experienced being "tested", but usually when a man is tested, the basis for the test is not simply because he is male. Third Sex: After being constantly dismissed and tested, some women find themselves questioning or even changing their own authentic style and emulating those who are not dismissed and are rarely tested. For the most part, this merans acting like a man. This puts a woman in a no win situation because now she is labeled a 'barracuda', 'dragonlady' or worse. This has serious implications for both men and women in the mentoring process, in how potential new female recruits view what it takes to move up the ladder, and in how both men and women perceive women in senior positions. Excluded, Avoided: The real meeting is the one after the meeting, those famous 'relationship building' meetings, events, golf games, etc. Women feel excluded from these events and find this limits their ability to network and have mentoring opportunities where they could contribute and learn. Tokenism: Employment Equity as a concept is fine, but when it comes to improving men's and women's relationships in the workplace it has, in fact, created a wider gap. Women report continually hearing statements like "She got the job because she's a woman," or "We men are losing opportunities..."
Challenges and Barriers for Men
The challenges listed by the men in my workshops are completely different. The list they produce regularly includes the following:
Confused: A lot of men are confused as to what the ground rules are. Most were brought up a certain way and taught by women in their personal lives what would be expected from them, yet now that instruction seems to be insufficient. Men acknowledgethat times have changed, but they lack clarity as to what has changed behaviourally and attitudinally. Also, the 'new' rules seem to vary from individual to individual, a further source of confusion. Careful: Some men have had a bad experience, and most have heard of one. Whether it was a blatant sexual harassment situation or something more benign, their reaction is to pull back and be very careful with all women. They find this challenge very cumbersome and costly because they can no longer be authentic, and they take fewer risks in providing feedback and coaching to women. Reverse Discrimination: Again, Employment Equity has, in some cases, fueled the notion that women are getting the better jobs at the expense of men. Often, men report working very hard to achieve their status and are frustrated when they experience women getting ahead faster and with less effort. Difficulty Supporting Women: Men say they have great difficulty supporting their female peers and coworkers because they see that women do not support other women. The other way this challenge plays out occurs when a client requests male representation; often men find it very difficult to push the issue or insist that the woman assigned will do an excellent job. Communication: Many men recognize that what they say to a woman is either heard or reacted to differently than expected. This particular challenge is often more difficult in men's personal lives. Men find themselves thinking carefully about how to approach an issue or how to speak, thereby removing spontaneity in their relationships with women.
Insights and Solutions
Accepting that women and men consistently report these different challenges experienced in the workplace, the question becomes: "Where do we go from here?" It is evident that any attempt to ignore the differences or "make them go away" is doomed to fail, and rightly so. What is called for, and all-too-often lost in the debate, is an approach that allows men and women to maximize their respective strengths in the workplace and to recognize that true competitive advantage lies in an ability to allow those strengths to coexist in a co-operative, supportive and aware workplace. Those organizations best able to abandon the "battle of the sexes" in favour of a cohesive and focused team approach will inevitably emerge as the leaders in the new, and gender-awareness improved, millennium.
What is your point of view? Please post your thoughts on the discussion board.
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After having facilitated over 2000 Gender Awareness Workshops, I have collected many opinions, from men and women alike, who have consistently expressed a gender gap in their experiences of day-to-day business. These challenges seem far removed from the typical gender issues of the past. Today, workshop participants want to build partnerships and congruence between women and men, but frequently face obsticles to establishing those partnerships.