BIAS AT WORK SURVEY RESOURCES
Four Patterns of Bias: Strategies, Tips, & Exercises
There are 4 main patterns of gender bias. Below you’ll find descriptions of each pattern, along with strategies that you can use to counter these biases. Beneath each pattern are links to interactive exercises that you can complete which will help you identify if each bias is happening to you and work out specific steps you can take to navigate around it. These interactive exercises are from the Center for WorkLife Law’s interactive Workbook, titled What Works for Women at Work: A Workbook.
Research was developed by Professor Joan C. Williams at the Center for WorkLife Law, and published in What Works for Women at Work.
1. Prove-It-Again!
If you scored “high” or “medium” Prove-It-Again! bias on the Bias Climate Quiz, here’s what you may be experiencing and how to take action:
Groups stereotyped as less competent often have to prove themselves over and over. “PIA groups” include women, people of color, individuals with disabilities, older employees, LGBT+ people, class migrants (professionals from blue-collar backgrounds), and sometimes introverted or modest men.
Patterns | Strategies |
---|---|
|
Take Control:
To counter the bias:
|
2. The Tightrope
If you scored “high” or “medium” Tightrope bias on the Bias Climate Quiz, here’s what you may be experiencing and how to take action:
A narrower range of workplace behavior often is accepted from women and people of color (“TR
groups”). Class migrants (professionals from blue-collar backgrounds) and modest or introverted men can face
Tightrope problems, too.
Patterns | Strategies |
---|---|
Too feminine?
|
Take control:
To counter the bias:
|

3. Parental Wall
If you scored “high” or “medium” Parental Wall bias on the Bias Climate Quiz, here’s what you may be experiencing and how to take action:
Motherhood triggers the strongest form of gender bias. The Parental Wall can affect both fathers and mothers—as well as employees without children.
Patterns | Strategies |
---|---|
|
The First Step:
Counter stereotypes with information:
|




4. Tug of War
If you scored “high” or “medium” Tug of War bias on the Bias Climate Quiz, here’s what you may be experiencing and how to take action:
Sometimes bias creates conflict within underrepresented groups. The Tug of War happens when a biased environment at work makes people in the same demographic group feel like they are pitted against each other
Patterns | Strategies |
---|---|
|
Take Control:
Strategies to combat the bias:
|

We Help Individuals and Companies Interrupt And Correct Implicit Bias In The Workplace

© 2018 The Center for WorkLife Law
UC Hastings College of the Law
200 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102
The Center for WorkLife Law’s website and its content are provided for general information purposes only and may not reflect current legal developments, verdicts or settlements. Any information contained in the website should not be construed as legal advice and is not intended to be a substitute for legal counsel. No attorney-client relationship will be formed based on your use of this website or any service provided.