Does Gender Bias Still Exist When Hiring?

Does gender bias still exist when hiring management staff?

In my experience, yes, it absolutely does! For eighteen years I have worked in various work settings with the same ending result: I apply myself completely, becoming practiced at what I do to such a great extent, that I am given managerial responsibilities, without the actual title of a manager. On more than one occasion, employers have told me, “You need to be a manager.” However, when I asked for the position from a previous employer, I was told, “Women cannot manage women.” Furthermore, that was not the first time I had heard this phrase. This experience is extremely contradicting and stagnantly annoying.

Fully able and willing women are overlooked when it comes to promotions. Women hold more than 44% of master’s degrees in business and management, but only acquire 14.6% of executive offices, 8.1% of top earners, and 4.6% of Fortune 500 CEOs,

according to Judith Warner a New York Times Magazine writer and a Columbia University Masters Graduate (Warner, 2014). Managerial positions are being filled with less experienced male counterparts. In addition, women are being paid less for the same work. This is a problem that is silently noticed and seldom discussed in the workplace.

What can be done to try and close the gap preventing women from equality?

Mentoring is a popular topic when discussing career development. In today’s world, businesses have developed into massive identities with intricate internal networks. Having assistance can be extremely helpful in gaining advancement through a company.  Mentorships can give employees that needed boost to make a connection to fast track their career that they may not have been able to access without help.

Mentorships are the professional relationship between a mentor and mentee/protégé. A mentor is usually a higher-ranking senior professional, who aides in the development of a mentee by being a role model and coach. The mentor takes the mentee under their wing providing nurturing support in career development. A mentee is an apprentice or beginner who has knowledge in their given field but desires further growth for prosperity. Mentorships in business have many different roles, mostly consisting of someone who shares their wisdom, experience, contacts and support, as well as being a sounding board for their protégé.

Mentorships have been initiated to neutralize old exclusive networks. The Old boy network or “Good ol’ boy network” is nothing new. This close knit inconspicuous social network consists of higher positioned males, in business settings, that incorporate competition and power advantages handed down through friendships and alliances, yet excludes women and less powerful males. Typically, the hierarchy chooses their next “boy wonder”, grooms them, and introduces them to exclusive connections as they send the manufactured prodigy on the fast track of their career, while shutting the door on others.

Business has been done through this network for decades. The mentality of this system can appear to be threatened as women and males of “non-white” heritage rise to contend for these higher positions. Some might wonder if this state of mind will die off with older generations retiring. Like gender biases, this approach is passed down to the next generation of “Good ol’ boys” creating a never ending succession. With the help of mentors these doors are not as sturdy as they once were, but is mentorship all that is needed to achieve an even playing field?