• PIA groups judged on achivements they’ve already accomplishments, whereas majority men judged on potential
• PIA groups’ mistakes noticed & remembered more
• PIA groups’ successes attributed to luck; men’s to skill
• Objective rules applied leniently to majority men; rigidly to PIA groups
• PIA groups get polarized evaluations
• People from PIA groups may be more likely to experience the “stolen idea:” or have someone else take credit for their ideas in a meeting

Take Control:

• Don’t wait to ask for promotion until you have all the requirements—majority men won’t

To counter the bias:

• Figure out what objective metrics are important, and keep careful records to show you’ve nailed them
• Keep track of compliments
• Arm your mentors and allies to advocate for you
• If you experience the stolen idea, counter in the moment by saying, “Thanks for picking up on that idea! You’ve added something important. What’s the next step?”

Too feminine?

• Leader or worker bee?
  • TR groups face pressure to be “worker bees” who work hard and are undemanding…but if they comply, they lack “leadership potential.”
• Modest, helpful, nice; dutiful daughter, office mom?
  • Prescriptive stereotypes create pressures on women to be modest, mild-mannered team players—so “ambitious” is not a compliment for women and niceness may be optional for men but required of women.
• Direct, competitive, and assertive behaviors in majority men
  may be seen as inappropriate in TR groups —“tactless,” “selfish,” “difficult” “abrasive.”
• Anger that’s accepted from majority men may be seen as inappropriate or even threatening in TR groups.
• TR groups report less access to career-enhancing
  opportunities and more “office housework”—planning parties & cleaning up; taking notes & arranging meeting times; mentoring & being the peacemaker).
• The kind of self-promotion that works for majority men may be seen as off-putting in TR groups. Modest men may encounter bias about how “real men” should behave. Strong modesty norms can make class migrants, Asian-Americans, and women uncomfortable with self-promotion.
• Asian-Americans are stereotyped as passive and lacking in social skills; African-Americans as angry or too aggressive: Latinos as hotheaded or emotional.

Take control:

• • Not everyone has to like you
  • Lose the hedges and state what you think with quiet confidence

To counter the bias:

• For office housework
  • “Let’s set up a rotation”
  • The strategic “no”
  • “Do you want me to follow up with [admin], or would you like to do that?
  • Try gender judo to avoid backlash for assertive behavior.
  • Use the posse and the team to help with self-promotion
  • “If I look angry it’s because I am angry, because you’ve jeopardized [insert shared goal]”

• Motherhood triggers strong assumptions (in yourself and in others) that you’re no longer committed/competent
• Benevolent bias: “I didn’t consider you because I know it’s not a good time for you”
• Hostile bias: “My wife could never leave her kids like that”
• Women without children may be assumed to be always available for work because they have “no life”
• Fathers face expectations that they will not—or should not—take time off for caregiving. They may be seen as deserving more pay or promotion because of their presumed
  family role.

The First Step:

• Do what you enjoy with your children and delegate the rest without guilt
• Don’t confuse performance pressure with good parenting
• Make sure your partner is really a partner.

Counter stereotypes with information:

• When you return from maternity leave, ask for a meeting to discuss your career goals.
• If you are willing to travel, say so.
• If you are the primary earner, say so.
• If you are out of the office on business, leave a note saying where you are.
• If you have to do something with your kids, schedule it as an appointment outside the office.
• “How can you work so much? Don’t your kids miss you?: “Happy families are not all alike.”

•  If people feel there’s only one slot per group for a prized position, group members may be pitted against each other to get it.
• People from underrepresented groups may feel they need to distance themselves from others of their group, or align with the majority against their own group, in order to get ahead.
• Prove-It-Again! pass-through: People from underrepresented groups may hold members of their own groups to higher standards because “That’s what it takes to succeed here.”
• Tightrope pass-through: Women may fault each other for being too masculine—or too feminine. People of color may fault each other for being “too white”—or not “white” enough.
• Maternal Wall pass-through: Parents may fault each other for handling parenthood the wrong way—for taking too much time off or too little.

Take Control:

• Do majority men always support majority men? No. Try not to hold members of your group to higher standards.
• If there’s a queen bee, often it’s a symptom of gender bias in the environment.
• Remember: there’s no wrong way to be a woman/person of color/dad etc.
• Remember: there are many different ways to be a good mother.

Strategies to combat the bias:

• Make an enemy into an ally: “I perceive—and I may not be correct—we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot and I would like to have a good relationship with you…”
• Get group members working together (and not just on issues specific to your group).
• Senior women: remember younger women’s experience is different.
• Junior women: senior women may not have as much power as you think