Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned. Shrews to be tamed. A beautiful little fool. Literature through the ages has suffused our culture with dismissive notions about women. That these negative undertones leach from printed page to permeate everyday professional life is no surprise to the legions of career women who struggle to find their footing in a predominantly male-oriented work world.
While not a new or even recent challenge by any stretch, the disparity between men and women in the professional arena roused our collective consciousness by virtue of Fortune’s article, “The abrasiveness trap: High-achieving men and women are described differently in reviews.” As the basis of her research for this article, author Kieran Snyder surveyed performance reviews from 141 men and 107 women, the results of which were as startling as grim. Her analysis revealed:
- Women are much more likely to be criticized. “When breaking the reviews down by gender of the person evaluated, 58.9% of the reviews received by men contained critical feedback. 87.9% of the reviews received by women did.”
- Whereas men garner constructive suggestions, women receive behavioral criticisms. Feedback for men was “heavily geared towards suggestions for additional skills to develop.” Women received feedback as well, but frequently the comments were shrouded in a mild reprimand: “You can come across as abrasive sometimes,” advised one review. “Sometimes you need to step back to let others shine,” counseled another. Women in the study were twice as likely as their male counterparts to receive personality assessments in the form of “watch your tone!...step back!...stop being so judgmental!”
A quick survey of today’s business landscape bears witness to the biases highlighted in this research. According to a 2012 McKinsey&Company special report, the highest leadership echelons prevail as “male bastions, with just 14% of women on Fortune 500 Executive Committees and few women CEOs.”
Some may argue that women have entered the professional pipeline in unprecedented numbers during the last few decades, so progress has been made. But research across the board underscores the unnecessary obstacles that are put in the path of women. Hidden gender bias, be it in the form of a criticism-laced performance review, is a stumbling block that makes it virtually impossible for women to break through the proverbial glass ceiling. Performance evaluations ultimately drive the quality of assignments, level of autonomy, and, most importantly, the leadership decisions that pierce the glass ceiling.
Raising awareness and acknowledging the bias, as Snyder’s research does, along with defining a bias-free evaluation process are two keys to unlocking the gender diversity challenge still faced by Corporate America today. With these first steps, we can finally start ridding ourselves of the old Bette Davis quote, “When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a b…” Well, abrasive.