For women in politics, it has been an extraordinary year. A record number ran in congressional races in 2018, and in January, the 116th Congress included 118 women representatives and senators, more than ever before.
Despite that historic achievement, the embrace of women leaders is not as apparent in other segments of the workforce. The Women in the Workplace 2018opens in new window survey of 64,000 employees conducted by LeanIn.org and McKinsey & Co. found that even though men and women enter the workforce in similar numbers, women do not get the promotions that men do. At the senior management level, men outnumber women 2-to-1—and the outlook is even worse for women of color.
The picture is no different when it comes to the psychology field. The 2017 “Changing Gender Composition of Psychology” report from APA’s Committee on Women in Psychology (CWP) found that even though women now dominate psychology in sheer numbers—within the educational pipeline and the workforce—they lack equity with their male colleagues when it comes to power, status and money.
The APA report shows that women in psychology make about 78 percent as much as their male colleagues and carry more student loan debt. The pay gap tends to be even larger for women of color, with black women making just 61 cents and Latinas 53 cents for every dollar paid to white men, according to 2018 data from the American Association of University Womenopens in new window, which looked at the salaries of all women.
Women in psychology also face disparities in advancement and leadership positions. For example, far fewer women in psychology achieve full professorships compared with men. In addition, even though 58 percent of APA’s members are women, they constitute just 30 percent of APA fellows.
Women are also more likely to experience ongoing harassment on the job. A 2018 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicineopens in new window (NASEM) found that between 20 percent and 50 percent of female students in the science, engineering and medical fields and more than 50 percent of female faculty in those fields say they have been harassed.
Of course, the field of psychology has seen some improvement in the last two decades, thanks to heightened awareness of gender diversity, inclusion and discrimination, but women still face an uphill climb on the road to equality, says industrial/organizational (I/O) psychologist Vicki Vandaveer, PhD, founder and chief executive officer of The Vandaveer Group Inc. “We assume that everyone should have equal opportunity, but the reality is that we live in a patriarchal society with white men as the dominants in the culture,” Vandaveer says. “As research and indicators such as the ‘MeToo’ and ‘Time’s Up’ movements show, the progress we’ve made in helping women advance has not been enough.”
Overall, women’s lack of equity in the workplace is a systemic issue, says Shari Miles-Cohen, PhD, senior director of APA’s Women’s Programs Office. “It’s about the abuse of power and position.”
No matter the cause, change must come from the top down, and subtle obstacles rooted in personal and institutional prejudices and barriers help explain some of the ongoing gender disparities, says William Ming Liu, PhD, editor of the journal Psychology of Men and Masculinity. For example, men tend to be stereotyped as more assertive than women, but when women—in particular, black women—do show assertiveness, they’re “often labeled as the angry black woman,” says Liu, a psychology professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. These embedded dynamics at the intersection of racism and sexism often go unnoticed in academia and organizations—and require extra effort to navigate.
So, what are the best ways for psychologists—both women and men—to eradicate the barriers that hold back women? Psychologists who study the problem say solutions include concerted efforts to deal with unconscious gender bias, and working with women to help them become more comfortable with power. In addition, employers need to revisit workplace policies, and managers need to foster cultures that enable all employees to reach their potential.
Men also need encouragement to become stronger allies for women’s advancement, says Asia Eaton, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at Florida International University.
“Women grow fatigued and often don’t have the status or power to effect lasting change at all of the relevant levels,” says Eaton, co-chair of the Committee on Academic Feminist Psychology for APA Div. 35 (Society for the Psychology of Women). “At the top of our field, men are represented disproportionately, and we need men at the top and laterally to be advocates for all women, including and especially women from marginalized backgrounds.”
Causes and consequences
Some of the continued inequities stem from the discipline’s history of male domination, says Eaton. “Even 40 years ago, psychology was mostly made up of men, and naturally, those who have been in the discipline the longest are the most likely to be at the top,” she explains.
Experts also point to the time demands of motherhood as a factor that undermines women’s advancement at work, particularly in academia, where policies make time off for child care incompatible with a tenure-track research career.
In the research arena, it doesn’t help that women are still seen as lacking the qualities needed to be successful scientists, despite significant efforts to encourage more women to enter science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers, say researchers at Wellesley College, including psychologist Linda Carli, PhD. She and her colleagues compared the way male and female scientists perceived scientists of both genders. In general, both sexes viewed scientists as risk-taking and competitive—characteristics more often associated with men than women ( Psychology of Women Quarterly , Vol. 40, No. 2, 2016opens in new window ). Women, on the other hand, were associated more with qualities such as helpfulness and kindness. “The overall image of successful scientists appears to be one of exaggerated masculinity,” Carli says, noting that such beliefs may contribute to the discrimination and prejudice facing women in STEM fields.
In a similar vein, a meta-analysis by researchers at the University at Buffalo found that showing sensitivity and concern for others—stereotypically feminine traits—make someone less likely to be seen as a leader ( Personnel Psychology , Vol. 71, No. 3, 2018opens in new window ). “Yet it’s those same characteristics that make leaders effective,” says study lead author and I/O psychologist Emily Grijalva, PhD, assistant professor of organization and human resources at the University at Buffalo.
“Because of this unconscious bias against communal traits, organizations may unintentionally select the wrong people for leadership roles, choosing individuals who are loud and confident but who lack the ability to support their followers’ development and success,” Grijalva says.
In fact, a 2015 study led by Amy Oh, PhD, at the National University of Singapore, shows that CEOs who show more humility hire more diverse management teams, have less employee turnover, show higher employee satisfaction and improve a company’s overall performance ( Journal of Management , Vol. 44, No. 3, 2015opens in new window ).
Psychology of Women Quarterly editor Mary Brabeck, PhD, says these studies and others provide evidence of structural barriers that often prevent women from career advancement.
“People tend to see people who are like us as more capable than those who are different from us, and those who are in power don’t want to give it up,” says Brabeck, professor of applied psychology at New York University. Because research continues to point to women as being less valued, she says, such attitudes lead to structural decisions that maintain the male hierarchy.
Harassment in the #METOO era
Perhaps even more egregious than the ongoing pay and leadership disparities is that women in psychology—especially students and those early in their careers—continue to experience harassment from colleagues and superiors.
This is not unique to psychology: The 2018 NASEM reportopens in new window found that sexual harassment is widespread across all fields and that the incidence of sexual harassment has not changed much in the past three decades. For the report, Georgia State University professor of psychology Kevin Swartout, PhD, compiled data from surveys at the University of Texas and Pennsylvania State University school systems, representing more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, as well as female faculty. Between 20 percent and 50 percent of female students and more than 50 percent of female faculty in the psychology, science, engineering and medical fields said they had experienced sexual coercion, unwanted sexual attention and gender harassment—described as verbal and nonverbal behaviors that convey hostility, objectification, exclusion or second-class status—from faculty or staff.
The report also found that sexual and gender minority women and women of color were more likely than their straight, white counterparts to have been harassed, and that women of color were more likely to report feeling unsafe because of their gender. In a series of qualitative interviews with women in multiple fields, institutions and stages of their careers, the researchers delved deeper into these episodes of harassment. About half of the women detailed physical and sexual abuse. More prevalent were sexist remarks, jokes and inappropriate comments.
The report’s findings are no surprise to many female psychologists who experienced verbal and sexual harassment during their graduate school, internship or postdoc experiences. One Oregon private practitioner who asked to remain anonymous says her psychology internship experience will forever be tainted by sexual advances made by a male supervisor shortly before her position was set to end.
“Up until then, I’d had an 11-month experience of him being really trustworthy and instrumental in my development, so it was very hard to reconcile this with the predatory part of him that started coming out,” she says. “I honestly didn’t recognize it as sexual harassment until the #MeToo movement began.”
Another anonymous female psychologist recalls repeatedly being called worthless and having her research stolen by a male supervisor during her two-year postdoctoral fellowship. “He made me feel invisible,” she says. “Right out of the gate I felt like I had to work 10 times harder to prove myself.”
Many women psychologists hope that as women share their stories, it will elevate the conversation on how to prevent harassment. “There continues to be a huge gap in knowledge in this arena, and not just with college students,” says Vicki Burns, PhD, a counseling psychologist at Florida International University. “Part of that is living in a culture where we silence survivors,” she says. “As a result, people have had difficulty recognizing that what’s happening to them actually constitutes a crime.”
In addition, says Burns, “it’s important to remember that not all survivors are women and not all perpetrators are men.”
Implementing solutions
Ultimately, it will take changing mindsets to address these issues, particularly the minds of managers, according to “What Most People Get Wrong About Men and Women,” a May–June 2018 article in Harvard Business Reviewopens in new window. Authors Catherine H. Tinsley, PhD, and Robin J. Ely, PhD, point out that even though women and men have similar inclinations, attitudes and skills, what differs is how they are treated on the job: Women face more barriers at work than male colleagues, such as less feedback from supervisors and fewer business connections. To ensure gender equity, the authors recommend that managers:
- Question the stereotypes behind their practices.
- Consider other factors that might explain any achievement gap.
- Change workplace conditions by giving women more constructive feedback and opportunities to lead.
- Keep challenging assumptions and sharing learning so they can create a culture in which all employees can reach their full potential.
“As a field and as employers, we need to support women’s careers and advocate for their advancement to leadership positions and selection as journal editors,” says Miles-Cohen.
In addition, employers need a stronger understanding of how supporting women, particularly caregivers, can improve a company’s bottom line. By increasing paid family leave and providing on-site or subsidized child care, companies not only attract better talent but reduce attrition rates and improve productivity, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research. When Google, for instance, expanded its parental leave from 12 weeks to 18 weeks, the rate at which new mothers quit dropped by 50 percent, which translated into millions of dollars saved for the company.
Since research shows that men’s views are often taken more seriously than women’s and that men are evaluated more positively than their female colleagues, change needs to come from organizational leaders to identify and remove barriers to women’s career advancement, Brabeck says.
“We tend to think about what women are doing to advance their careers, but the equally important question is, what are men doing?” she says.
From a top-down, organizational perspective, solutions can include investing more resources in diversity training, developing anti-discrimination policies and being more transparent in sharing salary ranges.
Individual coaching for changing mindsets—and the corporate culture—can also help, Vandaveer says. That’s important for both achieving and maintaining change. While most people initially embrace the concept of inclusion, once the effects of doing so begin to impinge on their own chances for promotion or perceived opportunities, they may not be as supportive of inclusive policies.
In terms of addressing sexual harassment, organizations can update their ethics codes to apply the same level of scrutiny to harassment as they do to plagiarism, falsification of data and other forms of scientific misconduct, says Burns, chair of Div. 35’s Violence Against Women Committee.
“Sexual harassment violations may start out as consensual relationships, but when there’s a power dynamic involved, it can get really murky,” she says. “Many organizations and universities are developing specific language for their employee or faculty handbooks prohibiting relationships with graduate students or anyone with any kind of supervisory role.”
In October, leaders from dozens of scientific societies, including APA, convenedopens in new window in Washington, D.C., to discuss sexual harassment in STEM fields. One outcome was the development of the Societies Consortium on Sexual Harassment in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine) fields. The consortium is developing model policy frameworks and practices that are aimed at combating sexual harassment, as well as a toolkit that societies and other institutions can use to help craft their own responses.
Another way to shift mindsets is to advocate for and conduct more research on ways in which men—and organizations overall—benefit from collaborating with women. A study led by economists at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, and Virginia Tech examining data from more than 125 countries, for example, found that corruption was lower in countries with a greater percentage of women legislators ( Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization , Vol. 151, 2018opens in new window ). More of this type of research is needed to truly help organizations recognize the benefits of diversity in the workplace, Liu says.
Supporting women in learning how to become their own best advocates is another promising strategy, says Vandaveer, who adds that women must help those in power see the value that women add to the organization. “One example of a critical skill that I find many women need is recognizing their power, based on their innate attributes and skills, becoming comfortable with that power and using it effectively to achieve the organization’s goals, as well as their own,” she says.
Finally, one of the most important factors in advancing a woman’s (or anyone’s) career is relationship building: finding mentors (female and male) who can advise and serve as important sounding boards. Also important is finding one or more “sponsors”—people in positions of power who will advocate for you, introduce you to influential others, provide opportunities for you to speak or otherwise open doors to opportunity. (Learn more about mentoring, including innovative ways to find a mentor best suited to your individual needs, ethical issues in mentoring and best practices for mentors in the Monitor’s four-part series on mentoring, which began in January.)
Women’s advancement in the field also requires more male allies in the workplace. “To truly stop gender discrimination and sexual harassment, we need a comprehensive approach that involves assessing and increasing men’s allyship toward women in the workplace,” Eaton says.
These strategies include:
- Helping men become more aware of the discrimination women face and of the fact that men are the beneficiaries of a biased system.
- Encouraging men to learn more about gender-discrimination and sexual-harassment laws and workplace policies.
- Training men to provide women with social support, such as listening to and empathizing with women who are experiencing discrimination.
- Urging men to speak up against bias and vote for policies that support women.
“Being an ally to women is more than just not being sexist,” Eaton says. “It’s ultimately about taking action to improve the disparities.”
