Author Maz Evans was typing rapidly in an airport when a man sidled up next to her and said what he undoubtedly thought was a compliment—that he’d love to hire her as his secretary.
“If he ever wanted to be mine, he’d already failed the interview,” Maz recounted.
Talk about an antiquated stereotype. If you really want to attract and retain more female employees, you have to start by rejecting this kind of Stone-Age thinking. But get this—at the same time, you also have to understand the data some stereotypes may be based on. This may sound crazy, but I’ll explain.
To keep reading, click here: The HR Policies You Need to Hire and Retain More Female Talent
Part of the problem with retaining women is the bro culture: assigning social event prep to an engineer because she’s female, talking over women in meetings, ignoring a woman’s idea until it is re-proposed by a man, snickering about bitches, “on the rag” comments, etc. Where sexism isn’t egregious enough to break a rule but is enough to chase women away in more of a “death by a thousand cuts” way, is there anything HR can do to turn it around? Training courses only seem to raise hackles and make matters worse.
Great thoughtful article. Some real food for thought. Data is great in the abstract but not the specific , as in who you are talking with right now.
Wow, this took me all the way back to high school and “Junior Achievement”. Our business mentor was a man and he kept telling me what a great secretary I would make.
Granted, that was 45 years ago, but what a shame that we haven’t progressed much since then.
For what it’s worth, this was an older man, so I don’t thik any 25 year old man would say that unless he was really trying to be rude.
On the other hand, my 32 year old daughter, title of Assistant Director at an organization that provides services for a large, mid-western city, recently interviewed a 35 year old man (he volunteered his age) for a manager’s position. She said it was going quite well, and he had the experience needed and was quickly moving to the top of her list. Then, when she walked him out, he said, “Thanks, sweetie!”
She didn’t offer him the job.