Untying Double Binds - Digital Riskproduce double binds •Provide strategies for navigating the...
Transcript of Untying Double Binds - Digital Riskproduce double binds •Provide strategies for navigating the...
Untying Double Binds
Marianne Cooper, PhD
Workshop Deliverables
• Demystify and explain the dynamics that
produce double binds
• Provide strategies for navigating the
challenges double binds create
Clayman Institute for Gender Research
Underrepresentation of women in leadership the United States
• Approximately 4.5% of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women
• Women hold 14% of executive officer positions
• Women hold 18% of elected congressional offices
• Women hold 17.2% of research university presidencies
• Women of color are more underrepresented
© Shelley Correll 2014. All rights reserved.
Underrepresentation of women in leadership the United States
• Women make up 19% of Congress
• Women hold 5% of CEO roles among S&P 500
companies
• Women hold 25% of Executive roles among S&P
500 companies
Gender stereotypes impact the way we
perceive, evaluate, and interact with others
Gender stereotypes can shape how we as
individuals think, feel, and behave
Boys and Girls
Boys vs. Girls
Early Roots
• Overestimating, underestimating skills and
abilities
• Higher expectations, lower expectations
• Differences in attitudes towards risk and
competition
Internal Barriers
Think Leader, Think Male
Walking on a Tightrope
Damned if you do,
damned if you don’t
Double bind n (1) A psychological impasse
created when contradictory demands are made of
an individual...so that no matter which directive is
followed, the response will be construed as
incorrect. (2) A situation in which a person must
choose between equally unsatisfactory
alternatives; a punishing and inescapable
dilemma.
(The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (Boston, MA: Houghton
Mifflin, 2000) – adapted for Catalyst report 2007)
Double Bind
1. Too Nice/Not Nice Enough
2. Too Modest/Too Proud
3. Good Worker/Bad Mother (or Good
Mother/Bad Work)
Three Double Binds
Strategies - Individual
Experiment with “Gender Judo”
• In what you do and say
• Practice using a “strategic no”
• In how you say it
• Master the strategic use of body language
(Williams 2014; Gruenfeld 2013)
Strategies - Individual
Join forces with others
• Create a “posse” to promote each other’s
accomplishments
• Vouch for the competence of women leaders
• In introductions, performance evaluations,
Linkedin endorsements
(Williams 2014; Correll 2013)
Strategies - Individual
Counter assumptions with evidence
• Make your work and accomplishments visible
• Be explicit about your career goals
Strategies - Individual
Strategies - Organizational
Use clear, appropriate, and consistent criteria
• Ask yourself and others: Would we say thing if she
was a man?
• Watch out for the tendency to evaluate women based
on personality vs. men on skill/ability
Strategies - Organizational
Challenge the idea that “taking-care” and “taking-charge”
are mutually exclusive
• Distribute and reward “office housework”
• Applaud and reward a variety of leadership styles
Strategies - Organizational
Challenge the “ideal worker norm” that pits family against
work
• Focus less on face time, more on results
• Resist the norm of extreme availability
Strategies - Organizational
Step #1: By Yourself
• Identify the Double Binds in your life. Where do you feel
this tension?
• What strategies might you be able to use to navigate or
reduce these challenges? For yourself? For your team?
For your organization?
Workshop – Untying Double Binds
Strategies – Individual
• Experiment with “Gender Judo”
• Join forces with others
• Counter assumptions with evidence
Strategies – Organizational
• Use clear, appropriate, and consistent criteria
• Challenge the idea that “taking-care” and “taking-
charge” are mutually exclusive
• Challenge the “ideal worker norm” that pits family
against work
Workshop – Untying Double Binds
Step #1: By Yourself
• Identify the Double Binds in your life. Where do you feel
this tension?
• What strategies might you be able to use to navigate or
reduce these challenges? For yourself? For your team?
For your organization?
Step #2: With a Partner
• Share your experience and brainstorm strategies
Workshop – Untying Double Binds
Step #1: By Yourself
• Identify the Double Binds in your life. Where do you feel
this tension?
• What strategies might you be able to use to navigate or
reduce these challenges? For yourself? For your team?
For your organization?
Step #2: With a Partner
• Share your experience and brainstorm strategies
Step #3: With your Table
• Everyone share – One Action you will take tomorrow
Workshop – Untying Double Binds
Share Outs
“ ‘Tempered radicals’ are people who want to succeed in
their organizations yet want to live by their values or
identities, even if they are somehow at odds with the
dominant culture of their organization…They want to rock
the boat, and they want to stay in it.”
(Meyerson 2003, xi)
Rocking the Boat, While Not Falling Out
Be a Tempered Radical
and
Create a More Equal World