Allies Against Bias—and Backlash
Gender bias is often unconscious, yet it permeates our society including our workplaces. While firm leaders must implement structural changes to make performance reviews, tasks assigned, recruiting, hiring, promotion, and pay more equitable, all people must take actions to mitigate bias.
“Gender allyship” is when men promote gender equality and equity through “supportive and collaborative relationships, acts of sponsorship, and public advocacy in order to drive systemic change,” Carmen Acton writes in the Harvard Business Review (HBR). A male ally confronting bias is more effective than a woman confronting it, researchers Laura K. Hildebrand et al found. This is because of “perceptions of target group confronters as complainers and overly sensitive, whereas dominant group ally confrontations are perceived as more legitimate and appropriate,” they write in the European Journal of Social Psychology.
While women are more likely to face backlash when speaking up against bias, their male allies are also risk, Rakshitha Arni Ravishankar writes in HBR. This can discourage everyone from speaking up at work. However, when those confronting bias include in their response their belief that people can change, any backlash is reduced and a door is left open to future interactions about bias, Aneeta Rattan et al write in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
While men can be essential allies in combatting gender bias, being effective requires more than good intentions. “Your education should begin by unlearning your own biases, and that starts by acknowledging that everyone has them,” Ravishankar writes. In addition to their own biases, allies must learn to recognize expressions of bias like microaggressions in others to be prepared to address them.
Harris & Ewing, 1922 (Library of Congress)
Firms should implement training programs to help reduce bias. Lean In offers free allyship training resources, including workshop materials and training for moderators. Among those surveyed, “men who participated in allyship programs were two to three times more likely to have recognized and witnessed these behaviors in the past year,” David G. Smith et al write in HBR. The same study also found that men consistently rated their achievements as allies more highly than their female coworkers did—a sign that work remains, even among committed and aware men.
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