Thought Leadership: How to make workplaces work for everyone

Our expectations of leadership are masculine. When we evaluate men’s potential, we are much more likely to see them as a good fit. Women do not meet our masculine expectations, therefore the projection is never triggered.

This male bias in our cognitive processing of leadership potential is powerful. “Think manager, think man” means we can fail to see women’s leadership potential. In fact, research suggests that men and women behave very similarly in senior roles, but men routinely receive higher leadership ratings.

On the podcast, Lisa S. Kaplowitz, executive director of the Rutgers Center for Women in Business, discusses the harmful ways women change themselves to fit the ideal worker image, and the organizations that devalue anyone who differs from it. In an article for Harvard Business Review entitled, 5 Harmful Ways Women Feel They Must Adapt in Corporate America, Kaplowitz and two co-authors share findings from their research. Kaplowitz outlines these adaptations and why they're harmful.

Listen to the podcast 23:00