The Authority Gap: 4 Common Workplace Scenarios And How To Respond
The authority gap, a phenomenon that occurs when women are taken less seriously than men at work, can stunt the career advancement of millennial women (as if we don’t have enough to worry about in the gender bias realm.) And this is a major problem for women in the workplace.
According to recent findings from the Reykjavík Index for Leadership, which measures perceptions of equality for men and women in leadership the average Index score for women was 68, well short of the target score of 100 (an indication of “consensus” across global societies that women are as equally suited for leadership as men).
“We tend to assume that a man knows what he’s talking about until he proves otherwise,” Mary Ann Sieghart, author of“The Authority Gap”, told Forbes in an interview. Sieghart, a former New York Times journalist, has studied, written, and spoken on the phenomenon extensively. “Whereas for women it’s all too often, the other way round, and as a result, women tend to be underestimated more. They tend to be interrupted, talked over more. They have to prove their competence more and we often feel uncomfortable when they’re in positions of authority.”
Fellow women professionals can also hold biases that worsen the authority gap problem. According to Dr. Shawn Andrews, author and gender bias scholar, patriarchal workplaces have contributed to the belief that women are “less valuable” based on privilege, power, and status.
“Thus, in workplace cultures that are more masculine, it makes it difficult for women to truly support each other,” she wrote for Forbes.
How The Authority Gap Impacts Women In The Workplace
When colleagues, managers, and teams accommodate authority gap behaviors and biases, women professionals often lose credibility, are perceived as aggressive or difficult when speaking up for themselves, and can miss out on promotions due to perceptions that she cannot be trusted for advanced leadership.
“This is a double-bind dilemma for women, who must project authority in order to advance, but the more powerful they appear, the less they are liked — a “da***d if you do and da***d if you don’t” situation,” writes scholar Rishelle Wimmer. “To close the gap, we must challenge practices that perpetuate gender inequality.”
The authority gap also compounds the unequal pay and racial biases women face.
“It’s the mother of all gender gaps. If you’re not taking women as seriously as men, you are going to hire them less readily, promote them less fast, and pay them less,” Sieghart said in a conversation with consulting firm head Eden McCallum.
“There is evidence, for instance, that women, on average, score slightly higher on performance evaluations than men, but they’re 14 percent less likely to be promoted. So, it’s definitely holding them back,” she said. “For high-performing people, men are more likely to be described as brilliant or outstanding or talented, whereas women are said to be very hardworking, diligent, conscientious…nothing to do with innate talent. She just tries hard.”
Another issue is that the gap widens for Black and Hispanic women. Research has found that there exists a “fundamental lack of trust” that poses a major challenge for them when they’re in leadership.
4 Authority Gap Scenarios And How To Respond
Your Male Colleague Is Always Mansplaining Processes, Even Those You Led In Making More Efficient.
Experts recommend having allies within your team or department who can back you up.
“You need someone who can help out by jumping in and saying, ‘Actually, Jane knows a lot about this. Let’s hear from her,’” Anita Williams Woolley, an organizational behavior scholar, told Business Insider. “This person can also make clear when something was your good idea.”
A Male Team Member Cuts You Off Mid-Sentence As You’re Giving A Presentation.
A recent LeanIn.org Women in the Workplace Report found that 50 percent of women have experienced being interrupted or spoken over at work. In this case, make direct eye contact. Address them by their first name, in a professional tone, and try the following, from communications expert Karen Donaldson.
“Let me continue and if there’s still a question, I can answer it,” she advised via The Globe and Mail.
The Lead Spot For A Sales Meeting Is Given To Your Male Team Member Even Though You Were Responsible For Acquiring The Client.
Experts recommend being direct and expressing your concerns at the onset.
“It’s helpful to be direct about your thoughts on the situation and address the offender immediately,” according to Indeed editors. “You can ask your coworker if they’d be willing to meet privately with you, and during this conversation, be honest about how their words and actions affect you in the workplace.
A Customer Sees You And Instead Requests A Male Coworker With The Same Role And Experience To Handle A Payment Dispute Issue At Work.
Experts recommend talking to your coworker about how they might support you by reassuring the customer that you can handle any issues or questions the customer might have and politely redirecting them back to you. It is also a good idea to troubleshoot this scenario with a manager so that protocols can accommodate potentially nipping authority gap scenarios in the bud.
