The Paradox of Gender-Conscious Diversity Initiatives: How Accentuating Gender Differences May Perpetuate Workplace Gender Inequality

2017年8月，谷歌工程师詹姆斯·达莫尔（James Damore）发布了一份备忘录，认为女性天生不太适合担任领导职务。事实上，在英国，女性仍然只占科技职位的20%，在富时100指数（FTSE 100）的首席执行官中，女性只占7%。然而，正是这些关于性别差异的刻板印象和刻板观念——而不是缺乏天生的能力——导致了女性在领导和STEM（科学、技术、工程、数学）领域的代表性不足。为了消除这些性别刻板印象，许多组织实施了一系列工作场所多元化举措。不幸的是，这些通常没有证据基础的举措本身可能会强化刻板印象，形成一个维持不平等的恶性循环。像许多组织一样，b谷歌在其许多多元化举措中强调性别差异，认为庆祝差异将使女性受益（即，一种性别意识的方法）。在这个项目中，我认为，通过强调性别差异，特别具有性别意识的倡议发出了一个心照不宣的信息，即妇女本质上与男子不同，所有妇女都是相似的。通过这样做，它们可能进一步证明性别陈规定型观念的合理性，从而证明妇女在传统男性领域的代表性不足。我将测试这些假设，同时探索避免这些意外后果的策略。首先，明确承认男女社会化差异的性别意识方法可能有助于减少人们将性别差异归因于先天因素的倾向。其次，有性别意识的方法，在接受女性贡献的同时，也承认女性个体的差异，可能会减少人们对所有女性一概而论的倾向。综上所述，本研究项目有以下目的：(1)研究性别意识多样性方法是否会导致性别刻板印象。(2)研究性别意识是否会阻碍人们任命女性担任领导和STEM职位。(3)测试两种战略，以减轻具有性别意识的做法的消极后果。事实上，对不同类型的多样性倡议，包括采取性别意识方法的倡议的实证研究是有限和不确定的。我非常适合研究这些问题，因为我过去和正在进行的研究测试了多样性倡议何时会适得其反，何时有益，以及何时效果好坏参半。然而，迄今为止还没有研究直接考察性别意识举措与女性工作成果之间的关系。在与行业合作伙伴的合作下，我将使用一系列方法和样本，在3个研究阶段进行至少7项研究：与一系列行业的工作专业人员进行实验，与我的组织合作伙伴雇用的工作专业人员进行纵向实地研究，检查现实世界的结果。在所有阶段，我将与行业合作伙伴一起开发研究问题和材料。在最后一年，我将举办一个研讨会，向伦敦的合作伙伴组织和主要联系人传播调查结果。更好地理解性别意识方法的影响具有明确的应用，因为它可以改变组织实施多样性倡议的方式。例如，组织可以更仔细地考虑其网站上关于性别平等的语言，并定制多元化培训，以关注群体和个人身份的重要性，而不是主要关注女性的独特贡献。在研究项目期间发展密切的行业联系也将促进未来测试组织范围内的现场干预措施的机会。

In August 2017, James Damore, a Google engineer, circulated a memo arguing that women are naturally less suited to leadership positions. Indeed, women still comprise only 20% of technology positions at Google and only 7% of FTSE 100 CEOs in the UK. However, it is exactly these stereotypes and rigid ideas about gender differences endorsed by Damore - rather than a lack of natural abilities - that contributes to the underrepresentation of women in leadership and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). To combat these gender stereotypes, many organisations have implemented a range of workplace diversity initiatives. Unfortunately, these initiatives, which typically have no evidence base, could themselves reinforce stereotypes, creating a vicious circle that maintains inequality. Like many organisations, Google highlights gender differences in many of its diversity initiatives, assuming that celebrating difference will benefit women (i.e., a gender-conscious approach). In this project, I suggest that, by highlighting gender differences, gender-conscious initiatives in particular send a tacit message that women are inherently different from men and that all women are similar. By doing so, they may further justify gender stereotypes, and thus women's underrepresentation in traditionally male domains. I will test these hypotheses, as well as also explore strategies to avoid these unintended consequences. First, gender-conscious approaches that explicitly acknowledge differences in the socialisation of men and women may help reduce people's tendency to attribute gender differences to innate factors. Second, gender-conscious approaches that embrace women's contributions, while also acknowledging that individual women vary, may reduce people's tendency to make generalisations across all women. In summary, this research project has the following aims: (1) Examine whether gender-conscious diversity approaches lead to gender stereotyping.(2) Examine whether gender-conscious approaches deter people from appointing women to leadership and STEM positions.(3) Test two strategies to alleviate negative consequences of gender-conscious approaches.Indeed, empirical research on different types of diversity initiatives, including those taking a gender-conscious approach, is limited and inconclusive. I am well-suited to examine these questions because of my past and ongoing research testing when diversity initiatives can backfire, when they are beneficial, and when their efficacy is mixed. However, no research thus far has directly examined the relationship between gender-conscious initiatives and women's workplace outcomes. In collaboration with industry partners, I will conduct at least 7 studies across 3 phases of research using a range of methodologies and samples: experiments with working professionals in a range of industries and longitudinal field studies examining real-world outcomes with working professionals employed by my organisational partners. Across all phases, I will work with industry partners to develop the research questions and materials. In the final year, I will hold a workshop to disseminate the findings to partner organisations and key contacts in London. Better understanding the impact of gender-conscious approaches has clear applications because it could transform how organisations implement diversity initiatives. For example, organisations could more carefully consider the language used on their websites about gender equality and tailor diversity trainings to focus on the importance of both group and individual identity, rather than focusing primarily on women's unique contributions. Developing close industry connections during the research project will also facilitate future opportunities to test organisation-wide field interventions.