How to be an ally to women in the workplace
This article is based on a workshop created by a team including myself, Michelle McDaid, Martina Campbell, Rebecca Molloy, Meisha-ann Martin, Alma Tarfa, Caroline Kaine, Michelle Reburn, Andrew Keogh, Kellye Leonard, Simone Crowley, Caoimhe Dunbar, David Burke and Liana Ertz. Credit for the ideas here should go to all these and others in our ERG team at Workhuman.
We all worked together in the Women & Allies network towards a mission of achieving gender equality. One of our goals was to open up a discussion about allyship and what it means to support and drive change for an oppressed or marginalised group. It’s hard sometimes to think of women as marginalised because we’re 50% of the population! But in the workplace, our opportunities are not yet equal. That’s why allies are needed to shed light on the inequities and challenges, to speak up and to create positive change. We created a workshop called ‘How to be an ally’ to open up the discussion amongst our workforce.
An ally is a partner, a person who has got your back
Source: What is Allyship in the Workplace? by Claire Hastwell
The research
A report by Mckinsey on Women in the Workplace (2021) found that one in three women said they had considered downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce in recent times. This was an even higher number than in previous years, a stat attributed to the devastating affects of the pandemic: more burnout, more job instability and more responsibilities at home. The data was based on over 65,000 employees in corporate America. Progress appeared to be going backwards.
We started the workshop with statistics from this research, alongside news stories localised to where the employees in our organisation are based. Sadly, you can always find topical articles about investigations into sexual harassment in workplaces or discrimination towards women across different industries, in different countries. If you are running a workshop of this nature, recent news is important to anchor the conversation in the here and now. It’s a good reminder that these are the problems of today and relevant to all.
Intersectionality
The problems faced by women at work are widespread and nuanced. The intersection of different forms of discrimination (e.g. sexism, racism, classism) is important to recognise. Whilst white women face more barriers than white men, black women are facing both sexism and racism at work and in all areas of life. We can only understand an individual’s situation by considering all the factors that may affect them. And it was important for us to discuss this as part of our workshop.
Common myths — gender pay gap
Raising issues of inequality can be met by opposition from those who believe the problems are overstated or already solved. A common myth is that the gender pay gap is not real. In fact, it is very real but it is often misunderstood. The gender pay gap is the difference in the average hourly wage of men and women across a workforce. It compares the pay of all working men and women; not just those in similar jobs, with a similar working pattern or with similar competencies, qualifications or experience.
What this shows us is women are more likely to hold lower paid jobs in many organisations, industries and countries. There are many reasons: higher paid sectors (such as finance and tech) are more male-dominated, whereas lower paid sectors (such as childcare) employ more women. Domestic and unpaid labour is disproportionally taken on by women, restricting their abilities to work in many industries. Part-time roles are hard to find, causing some women to drop out of the workforce for a time whilst managing caring responsibilities. The value that society places on labour needs to be scrutinised. For example, why do we think caring for people is less valuable work than trading stocks and shares? To what extent is the structure of our labour market biased?
Common myths — capabilities
Another myth is that women are less predisposed to maths or science. Documentary Code — Debugging the Gender Gap shows that women including Ada Lovelace and Grace Hopper were pioneers of computing. Women were code-breakers but their contribution throughout history has been minimised. In popular culture we see a man’s world depicted in many industries e.g. Wall Street, Mad Men, The Social Network. We see far fewer role models for women.
A more recent film called Dumb Money dramatises the story of a YouTuber financial analyst who managed to influence the stock market. I noticed that most of the characters from hedge fund managers, to fintech startup founders, to Reddit commentators, were male. This depicts a culture where making money is intertwined with being able to fit in, to understand memes and jargon designed to keep some people out. Women working in these worlds are faced with many more barriers to overcome.
Common myths — AI will eliminate human bias
During the workshop we discussed another myth that AI will save us from human bias. In reality, AI systems are fed by data from our society which includes all the information and cultural touchpoints above. This can lead them to replicate the gender bias already built in to our society, such as in this example from Amazon where a AI system screening CVs for recruitment replicated bias against women. The system had been trained on more data from men and decided that male candidates were preferable, so it made a rule that a CV which included the word “women" should be penalised. We need to scrutinise the inputs in order to be confident in the outputs — a major consideration with the rapid growth of AI.
Actions to take
Having discussed the problems, our main goal was to promote actions that everyone, especially allies, can take to support gender equality. The first is awareness, delving into these issues more, seeking out and listening to diverse perspectives. A simple action we can all take is looking around the room when important decisions are being made at work. Who is present? Who is missing? Where is our data coming from?
Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) play a valuable role in providing input into decision-making and policies. By their nature of attracting employees with similar characteristics or interests, they provide a safe space and give voice to different perspectives around your organisation. Acknowledge and support the contribution they make.
Amplify the voices of others in your team. Over my career I’ve been in the minority as a woman many times, especially as my seniority increased. How did it make me feel? Self-conscious, like I wasn’t part of the gang, or that I needed to blend in by not speaking out of turn. Risk averse, because if you are one of only a couple of women on a leadership team, it’s highly unlikely you want to draw attention to this fact. It’s almost as if doing so will break the spell that allowed you to get here in the first place! So if a male ally says they want more women in the room or invites us to speak up, it helps a lot.
“Women challenge the status quo because we are never it” — Cindy Gallop
Another action is sponsorship of women. Mentorship is very powerful too — when you share your experience and learning with another person to help them realise their potential. But sponsorship is what often helps us progress at work. It’s when someone more senior than you advocates for your progression or celebrates your achievements. It can be as simple as saying “this person is brilliant, let’s promote them”.
Studies show that it can be harder for women to achieve sponsorship at work. One reason is we tend to unconsciously sponsor people that remind us of ourselves in some way. Another is that women receive more feedback about personality traits and the same behaviour is often judged differently based on gender. Assertive or abrasive, calm or quiet? Word choices carry significance. Personality feedback often creates an insecurity, a sense that being yourself isn’t enough. Which restricts ambition and career development further.
Finally, it’s within all our power to participate in workshops like this and be part of the conversation. One of the most powerful sections was stories from allies where we asked men to share examples of times they had noticed inequalities towards women and how it changed their own attitudes. It’s a brave act to speak vulnerably about things we’ve learned, especially in front of colleagues and peers. Respect and kudos to those who took part!
What was the impact of our workshop?
We saw a tangible increase in people raising issues and asking questions related to the topics we introduced. The conversation around allyship is just getting started and can take up many different causes, but it’s a huge step forward just to be having the conversation.
Thanks to the whole team!
