杏吧原创

Have you heard that women are paid less than men because they don鈥檛 negotiate? Or that they rule themselves out of CEO positions by choosing motherhood over their careers? , professor of law at the University of California Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, disagrees with such claims. Not only has she got solid evidence to show that it is gender bias that is holding women back at work, she has put together a list of strategies they can use to deal with it.

The scientific literature on gender bias doesn鈥檛 make for a pleasant read, with study after study having found that women face unfair pressures in the workplace. After an exhaustive analysis, Williams determined that most of the bias women experience falls into one of four categories. Together, these biases can create an environment in which a woman is expected to repeatedly prove her worth, exhibit a specific blend of masculine and feminine behaviors, support her female colleagues and somehow avoid letting motherhood affect her working life at all.

Once Williams had identified these patterns, she set about publicizing them. She began by setting up an online game of 鈥�,鈥� in which players can check off behaviors they have experienced and send in their own stories of discrimination. 鈥淲ithin three days, I鈥檇 received over 400 emails,鈥� she says.

As part of her campaign, Williams gave talks at universities. 鈥淲hen I began to talk about these four patterns, women in the audience immediately recognized them,鈥� she says. 鈥淎s soon as I began to describe the patterns, they began to laugh and nudge each other.鈥� But knowledge alone isn鈥檛 always power. 鈥淚 realized that by just describing women鈥檚 experience, I was depressing them,鈥� says Williams. 鈥淚 decided to stop talking about it until I had some strategies that women could use to navigate these patterns. I had to provide proactive strategies, otherwise I would just make people feel helpless.鈥�

To collect sound career advice for women, Williams interviewed 127 successful female professionals with jobs in science, business and law. 鈥淏asically, over a three-year period, every time I met a savvy woman, I asked if I could interview her,鈥� says Williams. She asked each woman about the gender biases she had experienced over her career, and the strategies that had helped her overcome them.

Over and over again

Williams calls the first pattern of bias Prove-It-Again!. Because the stereotypical successful professional is a masculine man, women have to work harder to prove themselves, she says.

And that鈥檚 not all. While a man鈥檚 successes are likely to be attributed to skill and brilliance, a woman鈥檚 are more likely to be attributed to luck or hard work. As a result, men are more likely to be rewarded for their achievements. That鈥檚 what Clara Kulich and her colleagues at the University of Exeter in the UK discovered when they found that , in senior positions. , and a woman鈥檚 mistake made is noticed more, and remembered for longer, than a man鈥檚.

Are you recording this?

Many of the women Williams spoke to said that they address Prove-It-Again! bias by doing just that: proving themselves over and over. But there are some strategies women can use to avoid burning themselves out. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very important for women to keep careful, real-time records of all objective metrics they have met, and all the compliments they have received,鈥� says Williams. 鈥淵ou have to remind people of your successes.鈥�

Women must employ another strategy to do that, navigating the second type of bias: the Tightrope. 鈥淲omen have to behave in masculine ways 鈥� being assertive and direct 鈥� in order to be seen as competent, but they have to behave in feminine ways lest they be respected but not liked,鈥� says Williams. 鈥淢en don鈥檛.鈥�

When a woman highlights her own achievements, she is seen to be bragging 鈥� a behavior associated with masculinity. Getting around this obstacle requires what Williams calls 鈥済ender judo鈥� 鈥� behaving in a seemingly stereotypical way in order to get non-stereotypical results.

鈥淥ne effective way of doing that is to form a posse 鈥� a group of men as well as women to celebrate each other鈥檚 successes,鈥� suggests Williams. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e doing something very masculine 鈥� bragging 鈥� but you鈥檙e doing it in a feminine way, because it is seen as more suitable for a woman to be celebrating someone else鈥檚 achievements, especially those of a man.鈥�

Tightrope bias also gets in the way of negotiations at work. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a large literature saying that women don鈥檛 get ahead because they don鈥檛 negotiate for themselves, but that鈥檚 irresponsible,鈥� says Williams. 鈥淲omen don鈥檛 negotiate because they鈥檙e not idiots 鈥� they know that if they do negotiate, they are going to encounter pushback.鈥� The answer here is to employ more gender judo. 鈥淪ay someone else told you to negotiate,鈥� she says.

Sadly, this means playing right into gender stereotypes, and reinforcing them as a result. 鈥淏ut what鈥檚 the alternative?鈥� asks Williams. 鈥淚f you want to fight the feminist battle for women to be entitled to be as aggressive as men, go for it. But if you just want a larger salary, you鈥檒l have to be strategic.鈥�

A mother鈥檚 burden

Williams labels the third type of bias as the Maternal Wall. 鈥淎fter women have children, they face Prove-It-Again! squared,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hey have to prove themselves all over again, often because they are assumed to be no longer competent or committed to their jobs.鈥�

In a lab-based experiment, Shelley Correll and her colleagues, then at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, found that . Fatherhood, on the other hand, had no impact on men鈥檚 employability, and fathers were offered higher salaries than men without kids.

The tightrope that mothers have to walk is even narrower than that faced by other women, because additional stereotypes about mothers come into play. 鈥淚f they鈥檙e not at the lab, they鈥檙e expected to be at home with their children, even if they are at a conference presenting a paper,鈥� she says. 鈥淥n the other hand, women who work long hours and show themselves to be committed to work tend to be disliked and held to higher performance standards because they are seen as not being good mothers, and therefore are not good women.鈥�

Williams advises new mothers to discuss with their boss their short-term and long-term career goals and exactly what they can still offer their company. 鈥淚f you can still travel, say so. If you鈥檙e the primary earner, say so,鈥� she says. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e trumping their bias with information.鈥�

Pulling together

The fourth type of bias women encounter comes from other women 鈥� what Williams calls Tug of War. Traditionally, 鈥渜ueen bees鈥� have been accused of undercutting their female colleagues to get ahead. But blaming them for this kind of behavior is wrong, says Williams. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not an individual woman with a personality problem 鈥� that鈥檚 gender bias in the environment, fuelling conflicts among women.鈥�

Williams says Tug of War tends to be a real factor in science because there are so few women. She recommends approaching women you feel in conflict with to work out a truce and send the message that unprofessional behavior won鈥檛 go unnoticed.

But there鈥檚 another message to be learned from the Tug of War bias. 鈥淒o men always support men? No,鈥� Williams points out. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 expect them to. But women are often faulted for not supporting other women. It is not fair at all.鈥�

鈥淕ender bias shapes everyday workplace interactions in profound ways,鈥� says Williams. 鈥淲omen have to be more politically astute than men 鈥� performing gender judo and pretzelling themselves in nine different directions while they鈥檙e walking a tightrope. It鈥檚 no wonder there aren鈥檛 more women in science, technology, engineering and math.鈥�

While it鈥檚 true that organizations need to change, 鈥渨e鈥檝e been saying exactly that for about 40 years straight, and the organizations haven鈥檛 changed,鈥� says Williams. 鈥淚t鈥檚 time to give women strategies to deal with what鈥檚 out there. You have to be far savvier to get ahead as a woman than you do as a man.鈥�

This article will appear in print under the headline 鈥淏e a player, hate the game鈥�