Exploring the paper ‘Understanding Gender Equality Policy and Practice Gaps Through the Lens of Organisational Justice: Development of an Employee Alignment Model‘ – McCarthy, C., Barnard, S., Thomson, D. and Dainty, A., 2021
Blog four of five, in a series by Chrissi McCarthy.
In 1997, a steel erector worker approached me on a site in Peckham and demanded that I leave. It was no place for a woman. My reply? “Are you sure? I’m doing your remeasure next week.” Knowing this would affect the amount he was paid, he turned around and walked away. He never bothered me again.
This was sexism; the person saying it was sexist they were the problem.
Don’t get me wrong, I would have much preferred no discrimination, but if I had to put up with it, it’s easier when it comes with a label.
Over the years, inequality has become harder to spot, but our research uncovered some hidden mechanisms that hold your people back.
This is the third of our monthly research to social cycle blogs, which aim to make academic research accessible by unpacking one paper a month over three blogs.
This month, we will examine what we found when researching over 700 people from three organisations about fairness.
Exploring the paper ‘Understanding Gender Equality Policy and Practice Gaps Through the Lens of Organisational Justice: Development of an Employee Alignment Model‘ – McCarthy, C., Barnard, S., Thomson, D. and Dainty, A., 2021
#OrganisationalJustice #EDI #Fairness
Changing language, same thoughts
That was in 1997, as I advanced in my career, so did people’s language. They knew they couldn’t be outright sexist anymore, but that didn’t mean they wanted me there.
Their language changed, but their attitudes hadn’t.
So now I was told I was having “personality clashes” with people who refused to communicate with me, I was being left out of social engagements and was being given less opportunity.
My first reaction was always to blame myself. Maybe I am hard to get along with, I am not someone people want to hang out with, or I’m not good at my job.
It was two for the price of one, both the discrimination and the internalised response.
Three Sneaky Saboteurs.
The first two blogs in this research to social cycle examined why people resist equality approaches; in this blog we are going to focus on the outcomes of that resistance and uncover what that behaviour looks like.
In our research, we found that when people believe their organisations to be unfair, they are more likely to display covert behaviours that undermine equality.
For me, these sneaky saboteurs of equality are like quicksand underneath our feet; we can’t always see what’s happening, but we can feel ourselves slipping away from our potential. From our interviews, we identified more than ten of these inequality mechanisms. Let’s examine three of them to understand how they manifest in the workplace.
Benevolent Inequality: Free Your Hidden Talent
I once had a manager who tried to keep me away from the “dirty jobs” on site because he thought I wouldn’t like them. Although he thought he was helping, he actually held me back from progressing in my career.
Let’s not fall into the trap of thinking this is something only “bad people do.” This only makes it harder to recognise and more difficult to challenge.
Sometimes, behaviour seems supportive, but it is just reinforcing traditional inequality. It’s often well-intended, and the person doesn’t always know they are doing it, making it hard to spot and challenge.
I can think of many examples of my mistakes, and there are likely more I haven’t spotted. They are just a bit more nuanced, so they would take longer to explain in the blog. It’s also not something that only happens in construction; I see it rampant in academia, the public sector, and the commercial sector.
If you are thinking of being kind to me and letting me off the hook, I’m comfortable knowing my behaviour is not always helpful, and I have something to learn. I believe it makes me a better manager, consultant and person.
So, question your behaviour, are you really helping that person, or does this just make you feel good?
Spot it, and free hidden talent on your team.
Denial of Inequality: Stop Silencing Real Stories
Here, the interviewees questioned whether inequality was really happening; they didn’t see it, so they assumed it was all good.
Again, it’s important to note that the statements were not hostile or aggressive; instead, they were presented as honest questions. The challenge was that they came after being told of someone’s experience, e.g., “They say women have a hard time, but I don’t see it on my project.”
So, consider what you say. How do subtle phrases like “it’s getting better” really impact? I know that they made me feel like I was the only one having a problem, which made me less likely to tell people. It took me a long time to realise that wasn’t true. A lot of people like me were having the same experience, but they didn’t feel comfortable saying anything either.
Discrimination hasn’t gone; it has just changed shape.
If we want to improve, we can ask people, “How are you experiencing this?” or “What can I do to help?”, rather than assuming we understand something just because we haven’t seen it.
Call it out and stop silencing real experiences.
Positive Discrimination: Work Towards Meritocracy
Despite most people who are given jobs based solely on their characteristics being white males, in our interviews, we only heard concerns around “positive discrimination” raised in relation to marginalised groups.
Here, people question someone’s merits based on their identity, prescribing failure to a reflection of skill and success to luck.
The mechanism undermines marginalised people’s achievements and questions their opportunities. Yet it is disguised as justified, so those displaying the behaviour feel they are correct in doing so.
If we want to improve meritocracy, we should start by questioning our current systems and considering who they help and hinder. And ask ourselves why we assume someone’s worth before we see them in action.
Question it and work towards true meritocracy.
It still lands just as hard.
As inequality has become more covert, the behaviour is harder to spot; however, the damage is just as impactful.
As leaders, we need to create environments that lead to inclusive company-aligned behaviours.
As managers, we need to understand these behaviours so that we can challenge them in ourselves and others.
As marginalised people, learning to recognise these behaviours can help us reconcile our experiences and carry a little less load.
Key takeaways
🏢 Organisational action: How do you recognise inequality? Are you familiar with in-group supporting behaviours? How can you educate your workforce?
🎓Research: When considering inequality, investigate in-group supporting mechanisms and inequality focused on marginalised groups.
📚Peer learning: Which of these covert slights have you witnessed? Drop one below, and let’s name it to tame it.
