Gender discrimination is rightly considered to be a workplace psychosocial hazard that particularly impacts women, and anyone gender non-conforming, at work.

But there is often a sense that gender discrimination is a thing of the past; something that exists only in the Don Draper era and no longer occurs in modern companies.

microaggression at work — My face when people tell me that gender discrimination no longer exists.

It’s true that we have made some great strides in gender equality, but we still have a long way to go.

According to the 2022 Gender Gap Report, it will take 132 years to reach full gender parity at the current rate of progress. Trends leading up to the 2020 Gender Gap Report suggested 100 years to full gender parity, so we have in fact gone backwards, post-Covid, despite the radical changes Covid made to flexible working policies.

How can we recognise gender discrimination in the modern workplace?

Overt sexism has diminished over the past decades but subtler forms of sexism remain. These include:

Benevolent sexism - putting women down in the guise of a compliment (‘wow, you’re really good at that!’ in response to a relatively simple task that involves a tool, for example).

This can also occur as ‘chivalry’ - when men rush to be helpful to women at work in ways that they do not extend to other men - which can seem like ‘niceness’ but can make women seem and feel less competent.

Benevolent sexism can be particularly harmful, because it ‘seems nice’ so it is difficult to recognise and even more difficult to report.

gender microaggression in the workplace — Artist credit: **Emma** This is part of a truly excellent series - read the rest **here**

Microinvalidations - minimising women’s experience of discrimination or insisting that sexism doesn’t exist. For example ‘you’re reading too much into it.’ Or ‘that person has a poor attitude’ rather than recognising microaggression as a pattern of systemic behaviour. Or ‘nothing like that has ever happened to me.’

Microinsults - this could include mistaking women for having more junior job roles than they actually have. For instance, mistaking a doctor for a nurse or a Scientist for a lab assistant.

Microaggressions are even more common and damaging for women who are part of other minority groups, such as women of colour, LGBT+ women and women with disabilities. For instance, in 2020, Barrister Alexandra Wilson received an apology after being mistaken for a defendant three times in one day.

How Microaggression holds women at work back

During a panel discussion of women leaders that I recently attended, the panelists were asked ‘what do you consider to be your biggest achievement?’

Without exception, every panelist responded ‘just surviving.’ One added ‘just managing to get to where she was.’ They gave the sense of having managed to move forward and reach their goals, but of having to perpetually push through a current, whilst dragging a parachute, to do so.

**Artist credit:** Noa Poljak, semi-finalist in the UN Women **‘Generation Equality’ picture-it award 2021**

What had held them back?

In part, the challenge of navigating caring responsibilities and a demanding job role, in a world where truly flexible working is difficult to find. To be clear, it wasn’t the complex nature or the demands of the work that held them back but a lack of access to resources and opportunities that enabled them to organise work around their other responsibilities without being penalised.

In addition, it was navigating the world of work and advancement as the only, or one of the only, women in the room in a sea of (as they described) grey suits, and the corresponding overt or subtle discrimination as a result.

gender microaggression at work — **Artist credit:** **Lucia Perez-Diaz** Did this really happen?!. 2018. *Did this really happen?!*. [ONLINE] Available at: **https://didthisreallyhappen.net/**. [Accessed 02.04.2023].

Each of them recounted some of the ‘minor’ comments (microaggressions) that had been made here and there, through the course of their education and careers, and also the difficulty of navigating microaggressions, including maintaining self-belief in the face of frequent ‘minor’ insults but also the problem of how to respond.

Trying to fit-in by becoming a ‘grey suit’ (i.e behaving in ways that could be perceived as being more masculine) didn’t work for them, but neither did complaining about the microaggressions.

This is an example of the gender-bias double-bind, in which women and men expressing the same emotions are perceived differently.

A 2008 study (Brescoll, Uhlmann), investigating the gendered perception of anger at work discovered that men expressing anger were more likely to be positively received. Women expressing anger were more likely to be seen as angry people, whereas men’s expressions of anger were seen as attributed to external circumstances.

A 2017 study (Guillén, Mayo & Karelaia) found that in order to exert influence at work, men needed to appear self-confident, whereas women needed to appear both self-confident AND likeable.

gender discrimination — **Artist credit:** Sarah Cooper, **the Cooper Review**. Check out her book **here**.

Microaggressions don’t just make women feel small in the moment; but can lead to them being overlooked for promotions and prevent them from being heard, or being taken seriously, in meetings.

A particularly insidious result of microaggressions is that they can cause women to second-guess themselves and prevent them from putting themselves forward for opportunities. This could be part of the reason why women are less likely than men to self-promote, and a contributing factor to the pay and leadership gap.

On the other hand, reporting microaggressions or responding assertively can make women be perceived as angry or unlikeable which may also damage their career prospects.

microaggression work — **Artist credit:** Sarah Cooper, **the Cooper Review**.

What can employers do to reduce microaggressions against women?

Talk about it.

This can be easier said than done. Having a ‘zero-tolerance policy’ on sexism (and any other kind of ism) makes sense but in reality, it can lead to driving sexist attitudes underground rather than creating genuine behavioural change.
How can we talk about microaggression in a way that is accessible to people? Try printing off some comics that illustrate everyday sexism and introduce them in your staff training to initiate discussion (remember to credit the artist).

Don’t expect people who are on the receiving end of microaggression to do the heavy lifting when it comes to changing attitudes in the workplace.

What is the alternative? Hire a professional coach. They do this work by choice, are fully qualified (if you pick the right individual/s) and importantly, are paid. Glia can provide this service.

Be an ally.

If you have any kind of power - either because you were born into the kind of body that means people tend to listen to you - or because you hold a leadership role, then use the power you have to widen the space for others and pull them up the ladder behind you.

In practise, this can look like:

checking who else is on panel discussions or attending meetings, and asking that a minority group member be present.

noticing when women are talked over in meetings and highlighting their ideas (give them credit and/or give them the time to talk)
challenging microaggressions when you hear them. For example ask ‘why do you say that?’ when you hear a colleague say ‘that’s a man’s job really?!’ or ‘women are so great at multi-tasking!’

microaggression and discrimination — **Artist credit:** **Cynthia Kittler**

Recognise your own bias and prejudice.

Our brains are very adept at creating heuristics - cognitive shortcuts - that help us understand the world quickly. Heuristics help to keep us alive, by filling in information based on what we have seen before, but the downside is that this can lead to cognitive bias. It’s our job to fight against this, in order to create a better world in which equal opportunities are available to every one. When you notice that you are surprised when you hear that a woman is in a senior position, or in a male-dominated job role, ask yourself why?

In practise this can look like: Providing truly flexible working policies and ensuring that recruitment and promotional policies are free of bias.

gender inequality — This is not an effective way of reducing bias in recruitment.
**Artist credit:** **Lucia Perez-Diaz** Did this really happen?!. 2018. *Did this really happen?!*. [ONLINE] Available at: **https://didthisreallyhappen.net/**. [Accessed 02.04.2023].

Believe that representation matters

The more we can normalise women in leadership roles and traditionally male-dominated fields, the easier it will be for other women to join them. When I say ‘easier’ I don’t mean that we ‘lower the bar’ for women but that we level the playing field by taking the barriers away that prevent women from having access to opportunities.

equality at work — **Artist credit:** Laurence Herfs, UN Women semi finalist in the **‘Generation Equality’ picture-it award 2015**

Believe that microaggression happens, is harmful, and that it is systemic.

‘I’ve never heard anyone say anything like that,’ ‘this sort of thing doesn’t happen any more,’ ‘no one has ever said anything like that to me,' ‘that person is a bit of an idiot’ (rather than seeing this attitudes as a societal / cultural problem) is very minimising and makes it worse.

Gender Micro aggression — Artist credit: **Nathan W. Pyle** - you may know him from his wonderful alien comics, Strange Planet.

Equity and inclusion are not a finishing line that we have reached (or will reach). They are an ever-moving ‘wicked problem’ that we must continue to seek to understand and improve our response toward.

Tackling and working to eliminate microaggression towards women at work are a crucial step towards controlling psychosocial hazards for women at work, and improving workplaces for everyone.

stereotypes about women in the workplace — Yes this is a real ad campaign !

Does your team need help to understand and navigate microaggression at work?

Glia is here for you.

We are a team of highly experienced registered Psychologists who are experts in the world of work.

Contact us for Psychosocial Risk Assessments, Leadership Coaching, and virtual or in-house workshops to support mental health in the workplace and reduce the impact of psychosocial hazards at work.

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Follow the writer, Ngaire Wallace, on LinkedIn here.