{"id":338,"date":"2018-06-21T22:09:57","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T22:09:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/?p=338"},"modified":"2018-06-21T22:09:57","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T22:09:57","slug":"lack-of-inclusion-and-credibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/lack-of-inclusion-and-credibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Lack of Inclusion and Credibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a global society we have made many strides forward in technology, the creation of innovative prototypes for a variety of purposes, medical research and agricultural advances to name a few but we sometimes seem to still be in the dark ages when it comes to the inclusion and credibility of women in leadership.<\/p>\n

Northouse (2019, p. 418-419), in his case study involving Lori Bradley, an experienced probation officer and her interaction with her male colleagues addresses several issues that some women still experience in the workplace today. \u00a0Firstly, Lori is not acknowledged by her male counterparts when she enters the room and is blatantly ignored. The actions of Ted and Ian send a blatant non-verbal message that Lori is not an accepted member of the group and that she doesn’t belong. Similar to schoolyard bullies, only these are grown men in a professional work place setting. Secondly, when she shares her well thought out and researched ideas with the group her suggestions don’t even receive a response. \u00a0Thirdly, when the conversation between the two men swings back to her suggestion, they claim the idea as their own and provide praise and credit where it is not due. \u00a0When Lori objected, she was slighted and insulted yet again by being told that she was being “too sensitive” (a stereotypically offensive trait). What Lori experienced in the case study is not an uncommon occurrence. \u00a0Women all around the world are subjected to this type of indifference and dismissal. \u00a0 It made me wonder where and when men are being taught \u00a0this unprofessional behaviour and what we as a society can do to change this.<\/p>\n

Why do women feel like they still<\/strong> have to “prove themselves” more than 143 years after Jennie Kid Trout became the first licensed female Canadian doctor to practice medicine in 1875 (Chang Yen-Phillips, 2017) and why do some men presume that they are better, more effective leaders simply due to their gender?<\/p>\n

Nugent, Pollack and Travis (2016) discuss the “returns on inclusion and the costs of exclusion” (p.2) and the importance for leaders to ensure that all employees feel a “sense of uniqueness” and a “sense of belonging” (p.2). Exclusion can cost organizations through employees having “compromised job satisfaction, lower sense of well being, reduced work effort, diminished employee voice, and greater intention to leave” (p.2). \u00a0Lori from Northouse’s case study would definitely over time feel less satisfied with her job, feel voiceless, non-existent and through the deliberate lack of inclusion from her male co-workers be more inclined to want to leave the organization.<\/p>\n

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Image courtesy of www.cbc.ca<\/p><\/div>\n

I have to admit that when my daughter was born in 1998, we purposely gave her a neutral gender name so that future employers could not engage in gender bias behaviour based on the name on her resume. \u00a0 This is similar to Northouse (2019, p. 410) discussing the prejudice that existed towards females auditioning for roles with symphony orchestras and how changes were put in place to help prevent discrimination by having everyone audition behind a screen.<\/p>\n

I read an interesting online article<\/a>\u00a0 (Bryant, 2018) the other day about Equinox CEO Niki Leondaki and how like Lori in the case study she used to be ignored at meetings. Men assumed she was the assistant in the room rather than the boss and avoided addressing her questions or comments. Once she realized this was happening, she took measures to try and fix this misconception by handing out her business cards at the start of the meeting. \u00a0This enabled everyone at the table to be informed that she, instead of her colleagues was the CEO.<\/p>\n

As a woman who has also at times experienced what feels like ‘the boys only club’, I try to take steps like Niki Leondaki did to raise awareness and find ways to be pro-active to help off-set any preconceived assumptions. \u00a0I will discuss this further in my next blog post.\u00a0We’ve come a long way in many areas, but we still have a ways to go when it comes to breaking down years of gender bias in the workplace and making sustainable changes so that everyone has a voice and is acknowledged regardless of race, gender, religion or culture!<\/p>\n

If you are reading this and are a woman, do you stand up for yourself and other women in your organization when you or someone else is a victim of gender bias or exclusion? If you are a man reading this, do you stand up for women and inclusion if you witness a woman being excluded or ignored at a meeting or during a discussion simply because of \u00a0her gender? If you said no, I am curious to know your reasons why not. \u00a0If you said yes, I am equally curious to know if you felt like your actions helped make sustainable changes in the culture of your workplace.<\/p>\n

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References:<\/p>\n

Bryant, A. (2018, June 13). Equinox CEO: Men used to ignore me in meetings – here’s the trick I use to get their attention. Retrieved from\u00a0https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2018\/06\/12\/equinox-ceo-niki-leondakis-shares-the-trick-she-uses-to-command-respect.html<\/p>\n

Chang-Yen Phillips, C. (2017, March 7). Canada’s first licensed female doctor had to swallow many bitter pills. Retrieved from\u00a0https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/2017\/canada-s-first-licensed-female-doctor-had-to-swallow-many-bitter-pills-1.4011950<\/p>\n

Northouse, P.G. (2019).\u00a0 Leadership: Theory and Practice.\u00a0 <\/em>(8th<\/sup> ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:\u00a0 Sage Publications, Inc.<\/p>\n

Nugent, J., Pollack A. & D. Travis (2016). The day to day experiences of workplace inclusion and exclusion. Retrieved from\u00a0www.catalyst.org\/system\/files\/the_day_to_day_experiences_of_workplace_inclusion_and_exclusion.pdf<\/p>\n

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As a global society we have made many strides forward in technology, the creation of innovative prototypes for a variety of purposes, medical research and agricultural advances to name a few but we sometimes seem to still be in the dark ages when it comes to the inclusion and credibility of women in leadership. Northouse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ldrs500","category-unit-8","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":343,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions\/343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}