Dr. Catherine Ashcraft, NCWIT Senior Research Scientist

Unconscious Biases: Addressing Stealth Barriers to Innovation &

Productivity

Women in Tech: The Facts

Women In Tech: The Facts

We’re Losing The Women Who Are Already There: An Unnecessary Corporate Brain Drain

Sources: Capturing Turnover Costs, Joins, 2000; TalentKeepers, 2010; Athena Factor, 2008

74% love work

56% leave

75% stay in workforce

Why Women Matter

Scott Page, The difference: How the power of diversity creates better groups, firms, schools, and societies, Princeton University Press, 2009.

Groups with greater diversity solve complex problems better and faster than homogenous groups.

Diversity Enhances Teams

A group’s collective intelligence is not predicted by the IQs of its individual

members. But if a group includes more women, its collective intelligence rises.

“Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance of Human Groups,” Science October 2010, Woolley, Chabris, Pentland, Hashmi and Malone.

Women Improve Innovation

Analysis of more than 20,000 venture-backed companies

showed that successful startups have twice as many women in senior

positions as unsuccessful companies.

Women Correlate with Success

Dow Jones VentureSource, 2011.

Analysis of more than 20,000 venture-backed companies showed that

successful startups have twice as many women in

senior positions as unsuccessful companies.

Tech companies led by women delivered higher revenues using less capital and were more likely to survive the transition from startup to established company

Cindy Padnos, Illuminate Ventures: "High Performance Entrepreneurs: Women in High-Tech," 2010.

Women Help Companies Grow

Why the Problem Persists: Understanding and addressing unconscious biases

What the Research Says

Let’s Cut to the Chase

Technical Women Aren’t Broken

Technical Men Aren’t The Enemy

Culprit = Societal Biases We All Share

We Can Take Action Together

And EARLY ON is a particularly good time to start!

Culture By Design or By Default

Society is Biased About Gender and Technology

We all have shortcuts, “schemas” that help us

make sense of the world. But our shortcuts

sometimes make us misinterpret or miss things.That’s unconscious bias.

What Causes Societal Bias?

What do you see?

Count How Many Passes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkn3wRyb9Bk

Notice anything odd about this lung scan?

Photo: www.npr.org

More on Societal Bias – Howard vs. Heidi

Howard vs. Heidi

Howard vs. Heidi

Howard vs. Heidi

Society Organizational Culture

Subtle Dynamics

InstitutionalBarriersSchemas/

UnconsciousBiases

Employees

Unconscious Bias Is More Salient in Homogenous Organizations

Example: White male engineering students

score lower when told in advance that Asians

typically score higher on math tests

Source: Aronson, et al., 1999; Steele & Aronson, 1998

Subtle Dynamics Example: Stereotype Threat

Not speak up in meetings

Be reluctant to take leadership positions

Be overly harsh about their own work

Discount their performance

How Stereotype Threat Shows Up in Technical Environments

Slights: “Actually, Susan has a good idea.”

Exclusion: “Oops, I forgot to cc her on the email about the architecture review.”

Recognition: “No, I’m pretty sure Jane would not have had the idea to use a link algorithm.”

Isolation: “Dude, let’s talk about it over a beer!”

Subtle Dynamics Example: Micro-inequities

HiringSelecting people “like me”

Task AssignmentWomen find themselves in “low status” jobs

Performance Appraisal Men appraised for effort, skill; women for collaboration, luck

PromotionCriteria modeled implicitly on existing senior male leaders

Institutional Barriers

Institutional Barriers Example: Bias in Hiring

“Blind” orchestra auditions, with musicians behind a curtain, increased the number of female musicians

hired by 25% to 46% percent.

Goldin & Rouse (2000) The American Economic Review, 90(4), 715-741.

Invite Diversity & Actively Recruit

Evaluate Interview Questions and Include a Woman in the Interview

(Cheryan, S., Plaut, V., Davies, P., & Steele, C. (2009). Ambient belonging: How stereotypical cues impact gender participation in computer science. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(6), 1045-1060; http://www.ncwit.org/physicalspaceuw

Photo: www.psfk.com

Audit Your Physical Space for Gendered Vibes

Assure inclusive team meetings and social events.

Provide Recognition, Credit, Encouragement

Audit Performance Review & Advancement Processes

Examine performance reviews for unconscious biases

Build accountability metrics into managers’ performance reviews

Clarify paths to promotion

Consciously Develop Talent

Watch for biases in task assignment/leadership opportunities

Watch for biases in career path advice

Be a Male Advocate; Inspire More Male Advocates

“Every person that becomes an advocate had to go through that door where they take the first risk and realize, ‘Oh, that wasn’t so bad.’

So I would talk about the risk-taking that you take the first or second time and how, all of a sudden, it is no longer risk-taking.”

Enable & Empathize

“When it finally started to hit me about gender diversity…We were in a big meeting and…she made a comment about how difficult it was for her to be a leader in the organization as a woman. And so, here is someone who I literally was putting on a pedestal saying this…And I…was like, “Wow!” So I asked her after the meeting… “Hey I want to go to lunch with you, I want to understand this!”

Listening to Women’s Stories

“It’s like if I work on me, I can call people in my immediate peer group when they do something… call them on it and make sure they’re aware of what they’re doing.…I guess my strategy is increasing awareness.”

Talk to Other Men

ASSUME BEST INTENTIONS

“A lot of times, the women’s voice kind of gets drowned; it’s left out in a sense. I tend to play that role of connector in group settings. So, I…say, “Wait a minute — [woman’s name] has something to say....Or, you know, “[woman’s name] looks like she wants to get in here, but [man’s name], you just keep talking and we can’t hear over you.”

Correct Biases & Microinequities

Don’t give up: this is a long distance race and not a sprint

Supervisory Program-in-a-Box Series

Women & IT – The Facts

Top Ten Ways to Be a Male Advocate for Technical Women

Top 10 Ways Managers Can Increase the Visibility of Technical Women

Keep Going with Research-Backed Resources

Questions?

How do we surface unspoken gender issues in the workplace?

How is our organization laid out – in what ways might it subtly disadvantage women or other groups?

What do men most worry about when it comes to getting involved or being a male advocate?

Small Group Questions