Gender Discrimination At Work May Be More Subtle Than You Think

Would you know if you were being discriminated against in the workplace based on your gender? You may think that you would. But in reality, most expressions of gender discrimination are much more subtle, and ambiguous.

Why Don’t We See It?

One reason that we often don’t recognize gender discrimination is that it often doesn’t happen in front of us. Sure, if a boss makes a joke about women, or sexually harasses an employee in the workplace, that’s an obvious sign. But in other cases, the discrimination happens more ambiguously, away from the person being discriminated against.

For example, you may not be given a promotion at work, or a training opportunity, while less qualified or less experienced male employees are given those opportunities. Was it gender, or was it some other factor that denied you the opportunity, but gave it to those male employees?

Obviously, when we aren’t hired for jobs, many employers won’t call you and explain why you weren’t hired—and in fact, you may never know if you were passed up in favor of less qualified, male employees.

Small Occurrences Go Unnoticed

Sometimes, the discrimination is small and subtle—so small, that we may not even notice it when it happens. So, for example, co-workers or supervisors may ignore female workers when they speak while giving attention to male workers. They may give more weight to the opinions of male workers.  They may credit male employees with ideas that a women initialy came up with.

In one study, 74% of women said that they, at one time in their working career, struggled with whether or not they had, in fact, been victims of workplace gender discrimination.

In the study, women reported being riddled with self-doubt over whether they had done something wrong; whether they “just weren’t good enough,” or whether there was something more insidious and discriminatory at play.

In the study, women who were confronted with an ambiguous, more subtle form of discrimination, tended to look at themselves, blaming themselves for perhaps not being good enough or for wondering what they could have done better. But when the discrimination was more obvious (such as when there were obvious jokes, or pay differences between male and female employees), the women were more likely to go to management to lodge a formal complaint.

Disparate Impact Policies

Many forms of more ambiguous discrimination, are disparate impact cases. Disparate impact is a policy that is, on its face, neutral, but which has a discriminatory effect on people.

So, for example, imagine a job that limits bathroom breaks. That policy, on its face, applies equally to men and women. However, pregnant women often need to use the restroom more often. As such, that policy could be seen as discriminatory against pregnant women, even though the company had no intentions of discriminating.

Have you been a victim of gender discrimination at work? We can help you figure it out. Contact the San Jose employment attorneys at the Costanzo Law Firm.

Source:

theconversation.com/hidden-in-plain-sight-women-face-subtle-forms-of-discrimination-and-bias-in-the-workplace-214198