Rooting Out the Masculine Defaults in Your Workplace HEAD TOPICS
Rooting Out the Masculine Defaults in Your Workplace
10/21/2022 7:36:00 PM Research sheds light on the insidious norms still plaguing workplaces
Source Harvard Business Review
Research sheds light on the insidious norms still plaguing workplaces Masculine defaults in the workplace aren’t new, but you may not always notice them. Masculine defaults are a form of gender bias in which characteristics and behaviors typically associated with men are rewarded and considered standard practice. But the evidence shows that effective workplaces require masculine and feminine behaviors (as well as non-gendered ones) to be effective. With masculine defaults, it may seem like there’s equal opportunity for men and women, but men are often more socialized to engage in stereotypical masculine behaviors and more typically rewarded for them. Based on their research, the authors identify how masculine defaults permeate organizations, and steps to address them: 1) Identify masculine defaults, 2) determine their necessity, and 3) dismantle or balance them. They also identify traps to avoid when addressing masculine defaults at work, like 1) believing that removing gender information is enough, 2) fighting masculine defaults with masculine defaults, and 3) seeing masculine defaults as culturally “good.” For example, prior programming experience may3. Dismantle or balance masculine defaults.by attending to where and how it shows up in the organization; 2) if a masculine default is deemed necessary or too difficult to dismantle,In the end, Harvey Mudd did both. It added “creative problem solving”First, your company could do assessments of masculine defaults separately for your various in-person and remote team gatherings — these could include everything from regular meetings to after-work social events — as you think about navigating new work setups. Considering where masculine defaults show up most intensely could help guide leaders on which mode to use for future similar gatherings. Read more:
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Clothing designer pays tribute to Mexican roots through her fashion brandA fashion designer takes inspiration from her Mexican roots for her luxury clothing brand. , making this value particularly problematic for many women of color.Published an hour ago The nation’s doctor came to Philadelphia on Thursday to discuss an ailment that’s not usually discussed in medical checkups: workplace toxicity.October 20, 2022 8:55pm According to ESPN, the Pistons have commenced an investigation into the allegations against Murphy involving a former female employee.and the laws written to secure the lives of Black Americans, free and freed, from discrimination, violence and exploitation. 2. Determine their necessity.S. Ask: Are the masculine defaults identified in step one necessary? That is, essential to the survival of the organization or too foundational to change? This could entail having leaders ask themselves whether they could change the masculine default and continue to be viable, or doing a short-term experiment where the masculine default is altered to see whether it is necessary. USA TODAY Sports Murphy, 50, was promoted to assistant GM in June after being brought in by Detroit in March 2021 to be the GM of its Motor City Cruise G-League affiliate. For example, prior programming experience may seem necessary to get the “best” students into a computer science department. Murthy’s local visit underscores his concern that toxic workplaces have a significant impact on America’s mental health and wellbeing. But this was also preventing Harvey Mudd from identifying excellent students who had not yet had the opportunity to learn the skill. The advent of Jim Crow, similarly, had less to do in the beginning with a nefarious majority of voters rushing to the polls to subjugate their Black neighbors than with a long campaign of violence meant to neutralize Black voters and intimidate their white allies. Faculty and staff eventually realized that valuing students with prior programming experience was not necessary when they observed many students who had little to no prior programming experience excel in more advanced courses later. But bad blood still lingers for some. His college stops as an assistant coach include Kent State and Syracuse. 3. Dismantle or balance masculine defaults. Murthy spoke to The Inquirer ahead of a release event at the National Constitution Center, where he met with executives from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Comcast, Pinterest, and the nonprofit Empower Work. There are two options to address masculine defaults: 1) If a masculine default is deemed unnecessary, dismantle it by attending to where and how it shows up in the organization; 2) if a masculine default is deemed necessary or too difficult to dismantle, balance it by elevating a feminine or non-gendered default. In the end, Harvey Mudd did both. “I wanted workplaces and workers to have a foundation for how to transform workplaces into engines for mental health and well being. But that vote — the vote to pass the 1890 Federal Elections Bill , which would have empowered the national government to supervise elections in the former Confederate states — failed to overcome a Senate filibuster. It dismantled its masculine default by changing its curriculum to no longer reward students who came in with more programming experience and taught instructors how to prevent students with more programming experience from intimidating other students. The school also worked on balancing out masculine defaults by elevating feminine defaults. Post-pandemic workplace stress The pandemic has put a spotlight on the relationship between work and wellbeing. For example, they added “creative problem solving” to the name of their introductory course and emphasized the importance of teamwork in programming. How can your organization tackle a similar challenge? Let’s say you want to reintroduce team meetings and gatherings as your organization contemplates hybrid, in-person, or remote options. First, your company could do assessments of masculine defaults separately for your various in-person and remote team gatherings — these could include everything from regular meetings to after-work social events — as you think about navigating new work setups. If it were up to majorities of Americans — and if, more important, the American political system more easily allowed majorities to express their will — then Congress would have already strengthened the Voting Rights Act, codified abortion rights into law and protected the civil rights of L. Considering where masculine defaults show up most intensely could help guide leaders on which mode to use for future similar gatherings. Let’s say you find masculine defaults in your in-person monthly team meetings, with people talking over each other and others taking up a lot of airtime, and in your after-work social events at bars. Ask: Are these gatherings, in their current form, necessary for organizational viability? To answer this question, consider what would happen if the dynamics were different. An experiment where you try different options and see what happens can also be helpful in making this assessment. We recommend assessing outcomes for women of color (separated by racial/ethnic group if numbers permit) to ensure that this effort does not help only white women. Americans. If you determine that your current meeting style is problematic, now may be the time to switch to a remote meeting or establish a new way of running in-person ones to prevent interruption or encourage more people to share (e.g., raising hands or using a queue to contribute). Perhaps masculine defaults are showing up in your after-work social events at bars. This may be a great time to balance out that masculine default with an additional social event during the lunch hour as people are more eager to come back together to form community. And much of our fear of majorities, the legacy of a founding generation that sought to restrain the power of ordinary people, is unfounded. Some Traps to Avoid As you begin identifying, dismantling, and balancing the masculine defaults at your organization, keep in mind some common traps we see even among companies with the best of intentions. 1. Believing that removing gender information is enough. Unfortunately, just treating all genders equally or removing gender information from applications isn’t enough on its own. Studies that blinding reviewers to name and gender information doesn’t prevent them from selecting candidates who adhere to masculine defaults. The Times is committed to publishing. 2. Fighting masculine defaults with masculine defaults. Some gender equality initiatives can actually exacerbate masculine defaults. In 2014, Google’s required self-nomination process for promotion caused women to get promoted at lower rates than men . A head of engineering thought he solved this problem by sending emails to remind women to nominate themselves. This strategy caused more women to self-nominate, but sending these emails reinforced the stereotypically masculine value of promoting oneself and asked women to conform to it. 3. Seeing masculine defaults as culturally “good.” Remember, masculine defaults are just that: defaults, which are often coded as good or standard behavior in Western industrialized nations like the U.S. This overlap makes masculine defaults more difficult to identify and root out because many people perceive them as generally good rather than reflecting and benefitting a subset of the population. . . . The pandemic has done some of the work of dismantling masculine defaults. MaiTai, the venture capital kiteboarding event, was halted because non-essential travel was curbed. Airbnb dismantled a previous masculine default (expecting employees to work from the office) when it .