How Stereotypes About Women Affect Careers - Image

Women in business, IT, and leadership positions still have to deal with prejudice at work. How acute is the problem of stereotyping and how to deal with it? Let's turn to research and business experts

Statistics

Statistics show that gender stereotypes are common throughout the world.

This issue has been most studied in the United States. Here are the main findings from the 2018 research of American companies The Ellevest and McKinsey & Company:

• Women get promoted 21% less often than men.
• Men hold 68% of management positions.
• 48% of women believe that they have to work twice as much in order to receive equal pay.

Russia, IT and salaries

In Russia, the situation is similar. In November 2018, the SuperJob portal examined the resumes and vacancies of 17 popular professions in Moscow. It turned out that women are more likely to apply for a salary lower than that indicated in the vacancy. Men, on the other hand, want to earn more than the labor market offers.

In January 2018, ResearchMe surveyed 1,040 women employed in IT in Russia:

• 46% said they often faced the stereotype “women need to work harder than men to prove professionalism”.
• Every fifth girl at least once heard that programming is not a woman's business, and a third of the respondents argued that "it is difficult for a woman to take a leading position in the IT sphere."
• Less than 20% of the respondents managed to take leadership positions in the IT sector.

An expert's view

Why it happens? What are the most toxic stereotypes? And most importantly - what to do? An expert from the Moscow Business School (MBS), author of books on business and management, Natalia Samoukina reports.

Research shows that men are more ambitious, motivated by money, and committed to teamwork. Women are better at performing routine tasks, are attracted to intangible motivations, and work well alone. However, talking about gender management is 100% wrong.

Any stereotypes are a manifestation of the inertia of outdated social attitudes. The roots of this phenomenon lie at the beginning of the last century. Then a married woman did not earn money, but ran a household. And, therefore, she could not compete on equal terms with men in the professional sphere.

The main problem that Russian women face when applying for a new position in any field is prejudice against young job seekers without children. Employers believe that sooner or later the girl will go on maternity leave and will have to look for a replacement for her.

Therefore, under equal conditions, preference will be given to a woman with children, preferably over three years old, or a male candidate.

What to do?

It is pointless to fight such patterns - they are gradually leaving Russian management. Additional training of managers will help to finally get rid of stereotypes about female employees.

Business education in the formats of MBA, EMBA, Mini-MBA, trainings and seminars will help to competently assess the pros and cons of employees and treat them with an open mind.

Especially for a business woman, MBS has developed trainings that will help put oneself in a team: "A woman leader, or How to turn natural weaknesses into strength" and "Women in business."