‘Goodwill is not enough’

Women are more likely to be evaluated negatively when they are in a minority
- the lack of critical mass - and more positively if they are more than 30% of
the applicant pool (Valian 1998, Chapter 6 and Heilman, 1980). Coupled with
the effects of implicit hypotheses, here, following Valian, called gender
schemas, this leads to women being evaluated less favourably then men,
hence their performance is underestimated.

Many of the situations in which performance is underestimated are, in
themselves, fairly trivial. A classic example is a suggestion being ignored
when it is made by a woman but acclaimed when it is made by a man.
However, the accumulation of many instances of, often, small
underestimations of performance leads to a lowered success rate which in
turns leads to fewer women and reinforces gender schemas of women as less
competent. This explanation of the effects of unconscious bias leads to a
discussion of how to mitigate those effects. Suggestions include: ensuring job
advertisements are inclusive, ensuring further particulars of positions promote
the University’s family-friendly policies, proactively searching for women
candidates, flexibility, checking the gender balance of seminar speakers,
ensuring staff get appropriate feedback on their career progress and
supporting applications for promotion.

Essential features of the workshops are:

• A positive approach emphasising the benefits of ensuring diverse staff
can contribute fully.

• Tailoring the data to the participants’ own departments so it is directly
relevant to them.

• Making sure that statements about the manifestations of unconscious
bias are backed up by references.

• A non-accusatory approach emphasising that both men and women
have the same gender schemas and that schemas are not inherently a
bad thing. We just need to be aware of the potential for poor decision
making as a result of non-conscious beliefs.

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