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Breaking the stereotypes
Hi All,
I'm curious to ask, what are some of the women/female stereotypes that you'd wish would stop or break? And if I may add a follow up question.. What have you tried doing and to what effect has this made to change the unconscious bias towards women? Thank you!
Vd. Preeti Bhosle
Ayurveda physicaian and researcher
11
10/29/20 at 5:03AM UTC
well..so much has been already discussed :-) . in my opinion it is not about stereotypes always, most of the times it is our own thought process that stops us from behaving the way we want to. all i wish to add here is be rationally unapologetic about your thoughts. you need not please everyone around you and vice- versa everyone need not be pleasing you. independence is a thought process that gets converted into actions. be independent in your thought, it will automatically reflect in your actions. love people with the thought of interdependence not dependence.
the stereotype that i have tried to change is marrying the person i wanted to, going against my family. and also making myself financially independent.
Mhaire Fraser
11
10/28/20 at 4:26PM UTC (Edited)
interesting discussion. One of the things that I have also seen in relation to womanhood (nurturing) is age. There is an automatic assumption of "mothering" or "older sistering" among women when an older member of the team is present. the assumption of mentorship is also present in older team members, even if they are less skilled or less experienced than other team members. This does not happen with men, or if it does, it is in a very different way.
As I have reached my forties, I have noticed this more and more, and wonder if there isn't a way to dispel this. I often go to younger team members and ask for advice, even if I already know what I am going to do, or what the answer is. This tends to create a two way street and a more equal collegial setting. Also, it allows for the creation of relationship that is healthy and lets others know you are open to collaboration. I work in tech and design, and this is a valued skill in my area. I can't imagine it wouldn't be in others.
Ana Vujic
29
10/28/20 at 10:24AM UTC
Great question...besides those that are already mentioned about assertiveness, boundaries and looks :) my experience has been that womanhood is often defined=motherhood and nurturing. If this for various reasons doesnt hold true then the person is dismissed as "less".
This bias is unfortunately also frequent among women. If a women in her 30ies is childfree/less, the comments are often: "poor her, something must be wrong" or she has so much time on her hands and can take on extra weekend work, night work or less vacation because she doesnt have family responsibility, or she must be a cold B_tch. In general I wish there was more empathy for individual choices, whatever they may be...and that we are all valuable as thinking-feeling humans with potential to accomplish great things
Anonymous
10/23/20 at 4:19PM UTC (Edited)
Definitely the stereotype that a woman who has an opinion and is vocal is aggressive / difficult, but a male counterpart with similar traits is seen as a leader. It makes it really difficult to stay motivated and continue to grow.
Not sure I have effectively figured out how to navigate, other than to identify mentors / champions to help me with challenges! Also, I've leveraged female business resource groups at my company to learn from other female leaders.
Nadia DianResearcher
24
10/19/20 at 2:21PM UTC
The stereotype where women who wearing sexy or open clothes are an easy women. As if, what we wear speak on behalf of us to invite people harassing us, which is not true at all. For 22 years of my life, i've been facing this issue and i am so sick of it. I hope people nowadays will be able to think more logical and smarter on how clothes do not define someone.
DebChange and Communications and HR
32
10/17/20 at 4:07PM UTC (Edited)
The answers here are all great! One add is that I don't allow anyone to apologize just to me because I am the only woman in the room. Here is an example: we are in a meeting, a person curses or uses foul language, and the person looks at me and apologizes, as if, because I am often the only woman in the room, my delicate ears would be offended, but not any of the guys. I always say "thank you" and ask "what about the rest of the people in the room, by the way, not the first time I have heard or used that word, dude, but it might be offensive for the rest of the team." Even though I say all in good humor, everyone also gets the point. :)
Juliana Vieira Habib OliveiraHR Associate Advisor in São Paulo
66
10/17/20 at 4:36AM UTC
All my life I have heard "I take things too much"... "I think too much"... "I am too much".. "I am too much sensitivy".
Also, I am only child. Many people dont take me "serious" believing I dont have responsability. However, when it compared with men, I do not see the same steriotype.
Anonymous
10/16/20 at 10:28PM UTC
We've found that women in our workplace tend to volunteer more often than the men for optional committee work. We're not sure why, but we don't want it to feel like this is "women's work."
We've specifically mentioned this recently when asking for volunteers and more men have stepped up.
DeniseContracts & Accounting Manager
348
10/20/20 at 8:36PM UTC
I have to say that for a long time, the assumption was that the females in my department would plan any company sponsored function such as luncheons. Our new CEO knew when he took over that it bothered me that it was assumed I would do this, so he took over the function of party planner without a second thought about it.
Marquisha ThomasCoordinator (popwe - A Matthew West Ministry)
307
10/16/20 at 7:12PM UTC
This is a greeeeat question! I’d say, as an African American woman, the “being loud and aggressive” stereotype. I think I unconsciously ask a lot of questions, and sometimes default to others feedback because I’m not sure my thoughts or feelings are valid (which is crap). I can’t help the loud part, as that is definitely just a part of who I am and not about my make-up, but I sometimes worry when I am too loud that that will come back to that specific stereotype.
Caroline Platt
621
10/16/20 at 4:18PM UTC
They will ask about work/ life balance or how you plan to handle your children and a job. They never ask men this. It’s starting to become illegal to ask this, but that just leaves them wondering. In my case, I’m fairly upfront or work it in skillfully that I’m so lucky my husband works from home and can handle all the soccer, baseball, & ballet class carpools. If you have a great nanny that does all this, you could mention how lucky you are.
Joy Matwale
87
10/28/20 at 2:04PM UTC
This is so true! And I agree with your approach. Addressing these types of bias by leaning into it in an affirmative way, like in the examples you've provided, can contribute towards changing social perspectives.
Doing it this way also shifts the power balance back in your favor, as a woman, because you get to control the narrative around these issues.
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