Gender bias can come in many forms, such as failing to allow a female business owner to speak up during a meeting. Or it can be more blatant, such as asking the same business owner if she plans to have children. Persistent and enterprising as they are, many women develop an ability to tune out the bias, or to steer it into conversations that highlight their talents instead. However, it should not be just up to individuals to tackle such disheartening attitudes – everyone has a part to play.

Although gender bias still exists, the number of women-owned businesses in the U.S. has grown to over 10 million nationwide (up from 5.4 million in 1997). However, while women owners are more visible and accepted than decades ago, “someone still assumes that if you’re the CEO, you’re the white guy in the suit” says Susan Duffy, the executive director of the Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership at Babson College.

Change, however inevitable, is often a gradual process. While we have seen a steady increase in the proportion of females and minorities in the C-Suite, true balance remains an aspiration. Stereotypes persist, and some seem to be more wide-spread than others. For example, discrimination against women in leadership positions continues to be a problem. Accomplished females in sectors as diverse as technology, law, and entrepreneurship routinely face questions of their competency far more commonly – and overtly – than race-based prejudice.

Affirmative Action?

It has been suggested that a proactive hiring policy along the lines of “affirmative action” can help to address the imbalance. While it would certainly assist in terms of numbers, that approach can have negative consequences, too.

One critical problem is that it diminishes the achievements of women and minorities who have truly earned their way to the top. Their efforts may be undermined if there is an impression that they only got where they are because standards were lowered for them.

Communication and Real Change

Change will not come from focusing efforts on promoting any particular ethnicity or minority. It will emerge when everyone sees that an organization provides a level playing field for all individuals with the drive and the talent to excel.

Paramount to this change in the C-Suite is the ability to communicate. In a 2016 Forbes interview, Bernard J. Tyson, the CEO of Kaiser Permanente, revealed some of the difficulties he has faced throughout his career. As an African-American physician just beginning his career, he realized that “the majority of the population doesn’t have any sort of mental road map for how to relate to and work with someone different from themselves.” In order to work together to breakdown racial and gender bias, Tyson concluded that we all have to embrace open communication and the ability to tell the truth.

As business leaders, we must recognize and build awareness that many types of people are part of the C-Suite. But our obligation doesn’t stop there: the criteria for inclusion must be clear and easily available to individuals interested in pursuing executive careers. Organizations must demonstrate that they welcome those with talent, regardless of their gender or background.

Please contact me today if you would like to discuss this very important topic in further detail.