Navigating Email Communication in a Biased System

Sexism is everywhere in workplaces, from people’s expectations about how women look and act to companies’ inadequate or unfair parental leave policies. Still, it can be shocking when you realize—or suspect—that you’re the target of that bias. Perhaps you sense someone is interrupting you over and over because you’re a woman. Or, you receive an end-of-year rating that just doesn’t align with your actual performance, and no one can (or will) explain the discrepancy.

Is there any way to know for sure whether something that a colleague or client did—or neglected to do—is sexism? When is confronting that person worth it? And if you’ll never know what drove their actions, how do you make peace with the uncertainty? Amy G talks through these questions with two professors who study perceptions and gender stereotypes.

Guest experts:  

Katie Coffman is an economist and professor at Harvard Business School, where she studies how stereotypes impact our beliefs about ourselves

Michelle Duguid is a professor and the associate dean of diversity, inclusion, and belonging at Cornell. 

Resources:

• “Dismantling ‘Benevolent’ Sexism,” by Negin Sattari et al.
• “Unconscious Bias Training That Works,” by Francesca Gino and Katherine Coffman
• “Why Most Performance Evaluations Are Biased, and How to Fix Them,” by Lori Nishiura Mackenzie et al.
• “Research: How Bias Against Women Persists in Female-Dominated Workplaces,” by Amy Diehl

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