The Science Behind Gender-Neutral Workplaces
Men are from Mars and women are from Venus… right?
We’ve all heard the phrase, usually accompanied by an eye roll, as a quick way to poke fun at the seemingly endless examples of misunderstandings, misinterpretations and miscommunications when dealing with the different genders.
The phrase implies that men's and women's biology or behaviour are lightyears away from each other — so much so, that we are actually not of the same planet. Obviously, that isn’t true, but some people do hold the belief that men and women are fundamentally different.
The fact of the matter is that yes, there is a difference in male and female biology. However, when it comes to our mental facilities we are far more alike than we are different.
If men's and women’s distribution of biological characteristics was mapped on a bell curve, they would overlap ~97%. Meanwhile, culturally we obsess over the 1.5% on each end of the distribution as some sort of ‘gotcha!’. Our DNA maps 96% with chimpanzees after all and we don’t use that as an excuse to behave like monkeys.
Science shows us that we need gender-neutral environments to thrive
Not one, but two people who are deeply respected and admired in the world of gender equity told me Cordelia Fine’s Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference was transformative and foundational to their journeys and leadership in the space. With such stellar reviews, it became the clear choice for our Spring 2022 B.O.O.K. Club read which opened our eyes to ways our brains and science are continuously influenced by cultural assumptions of gender.
Despite it reading like a bit of academic slog, it clearly outlined the ways in which we can and are unintentionally reinforce gender stereotypes. Fine uses neuroscience and psychology to disprove the above mentioned biological arguement and instead offers alternative explanations for any differences in behaviour men and women have.
(A side note if the above mention of academia turned you off from the book – one of the most enjoyable parts of this book is just how cheeky Fine is throughout the book with chapter titles like Sex And Premature Speculation and her takedowns of ‘the consensus’ #ThrowingShade)
The first third of the book, aptly titled “Half-Changed World,” Half-Changed Minds, examines the way our assumptions about gender influence the very behaviour we study when we look for inherent gender differences.
For example, performance on tests can be influenced simply by the addition of a question asking them to check a box to indicate their gender. A woman, just by marking themselves ‘female’, may perform worse on a math test as women are stereotypically ‘bad at math’. Interestingly, if a male was pre-conditioned to believe that empathy would be socially valued in an experiment, they overperformed their stereotype. This shows that social priming works both ways to increase or decrease performance.
“When the environment makes gender salient, there is a ripple effect on the mind. We start to think of ourselves in terms of our gender, and stereotypes and social expectations become more prominent in the mind. This can change self-perception, alter interests, debilitate or enhance ability, and trigger unintentional discrimination. In other words, the social context influences who you are, how you think and what you do.”
The way we have gendered aspects of our lives is only reinforcing the restrictive gender stereotypes and roles that we. And we can see this in the happening in all realms of our lives — at home, in schools, and in the office.
Workplaces where gender is highly visible — such as male dominant industries or workplaces with unchecked culture — create environments that are more likely to see patterns of gender stereotypes and even gender-based violence. Instances of stereotypes at work can be subtle but damaging nonetheless. For example, managers are 44% more likely to ask a woman to do a menial task, which can has been show to reduce women’s chances of promotions. Furthermore, rates of harassment and gender discrimination are also higher in male-dominant industries.
What does gender neutral look like?
Gender neutrality is the idea that policies, language, and other environments should avoid distinguishing roles according to people's sex or gender in order to avoid discrimination arising from the impression that there are social roles for which one gender is more suited than another.
Note: this is not to be confused with gender blindness which ignores someone’s gender but fails to recognize the roles and expectations are imposed in specific social, cultural, and political contexts. Gender neutrality instead acknowledges that there are ways society percieves and socializes genders differently and therefor requires us to actively take steps to avoid differential treatment.
The final portion of the Delusions of Gender, “Recycling Gender”, goes into how socialization occurs, and in particular how parents pass their beliefs about gender on to their children. Or, even if parents are conscientious in the beliefs they pass on, just how difficult it can be to raise a gender-neutral child these days.
We may believe that if a little girl is given a toy truck and chemistry set that we can overcome gender norms. But what if she wants dolls and an easy-bake oven instead? Is it her hardwired femininity coming out or all the advertising she sees, the trips down the toy aisle at the store, the television shows and books and movies that promote gender stereotypes, our own unconscious beliefs and behaviours, or the way her friends behave?
If genderless toys for children seem like navigating a mine-field, what hope do we have for creating gender neutral workplaces?
Fine opens the book with this simple prompt that may as well be from our Gender Norms workshop:
“Suppose a researcher were to tap you on the shoulder and ask you to write down what, according to cultural lore, males and females are like. Would you stare at the researcher blankly and exclaim, “But what can you mean? Every person is a unique, multifaceted, sometimes even contradictory individual, and with such an astonishing range of personality traits within each sex, and across contexts, social class, age, experience, educational level, sexuality, and ethnicity, it would be pointless and meaningless to attempt to pigeonhole such rich complexity and variability into two crude stereotypes”? No. You’d pick up your pencil and start writing. Take a look at the two lists from such a survey, and you will find yourself reading adjectives that would not look out of place in an eighteenth-century treatise on the different duties of the two sexes.”
It is astounding how easily people fall into the well-trodden ruts of gender with the simple nudge of the prompt of what groups of people should be like. I am pleased to report that in the five years that we’ve been leading gender norms workshops, we are starting to experience more resistance to these norms than we did in the beginning — though it is not ubiquitous.
If you approach any workplace challenge with the idea of how it should be, your ability to innovate and find novel solutions are limited as you and your team will fall back on ideas of how it’s always been done.
Three practical steps to create a gender neutral workplace:
Use gender-neutral language. Last year, the govenment of British Columbia updated 600 instances of gendered language and 70 regulations across 15 ministries. Companies can use the United Nations or Government of Canada guidelines for inclusive language to update their own documents and policies.
“Language matters. It allows people to feel recognized and affirmed. By upholding inclusive language, our government is taking steps to protect British Columbians’ human rights. We believe outdated language that prevents people from being seen for who they are should be removed to help tackle gender bias.”
Create physically inclusive workspaces. Research shows that washrooms are often indicated as one of the least safe space by trans, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming people. Workplaces should designate spaces for expectant and nursing mothers and ensuring there is gender neutral or gender inclusive bathrooms. Check out Egale for resources.
Foster inclusive leaders. Change happens from the top — and leaders should be role models for behaving inclusively. Research has demonstrated that companies promoting gender equality movement have CEOs and leaders who are committed to it. Invest in your leaders with coaching, training, workshops and even book clubs to foster their inclusive leaderships capabilities.
Why Join B.O.O.K. Club?
B.O.O.K. Club members told us that Delusions of Gender was a hard read. Instagram is full of people intentionally doing hard things.
Why do people run ultra marathons? Or willingly dunk themselves in ice baths? For the satisfaction of setting out to do something you may not enjoy, that is hard, but ultimately makes you better.
Inclusive leadership is the same. The conversations aren’t easy. The learning & unlearning isn’t easy. The understanding that we may have caused harm isn’t easy. The effort to be and do better isn’t easy.
But it is easier not to have to do it alone.
Over 400 male-identified leaders have read with us across our eight cohorts thus far. Sometimes the book has been an inspiring memoir, other times a cutting critique, but always a thought-provoking and paradigm challenging read. Join us!