Sexism has to do with people’s beliefs about the roles women and men should play in society. Sexist assumptions about women and men manifest as gender stereotypes and place one gender as superior to another. Sexism can affect anyone, but women most often.
The impact of sexism
Sexism in the workplace can create barriers to women’s advancement and reduce their chances of reaching leadership positions. The European Union Knowledge Center for Gender Equality (EIGE) report on sexism in the workplace identifies the impact on several aspects. One of them is the inefficiency and waste of human resources, as men do not choose or leave female-dominated fields of activity as a result of prejudice. Such sectors are patient care and primary education.
Furthermore, normalizing sexist behavior leads to a decrease in employee performance, sense of belonging, mental health and job satisfaction.
When employees feel that sexist behavior and practices continue to be practiced despite efforts to build an inclusive workplace, it can damage the company’s image.
At the work place
People don’t necessarily have to be gender stereotyped to be affected. At work, the effects of sexism can be detected during the application process. In applying for a job, when women apply for a particular job, they meet 100% of the criteria, while men would apply if they only met 60%.
Later, at the task performance evaluation stage, women were found to receive less feedback than men, and the feedback they received was less likely to be constructive and more likely to be critical and unclear.
It has been shown that women are more likely to volunteer or be assigned tasks, such as serving on a committee or planning a party, that do not subsequently influence the promotion decision.
Women speak less in meetings – especially when they are in the minority. More often men interrupt a woman who is speaking.
Counteraction
You can find out if you have gender bias by taking a test developed by Harvard.
If the company has diversity and inclusion trainings, they likely include a section on sexism. It is important that managers have zero tolerance for sexist jokes or comments. When a colleague makes an inappropriate joke that involves an offensive stereotype during a meeting, an immediate reaction is important. If one does not take the attitude of the moment, it means taking the position of the one who discriminates. If, however, the moment is not appropriate, it is appropriate soon after the incident, but in private with the one who made the joke, to clarify that it was inappropriate and should not be repeated again.
