The Truth about Bias for Women and How We Can Stop it Together

Over the past few decades, organizations have been working slowly towards removing gender bias (and unconscious and implicit bias) in the workplace and progress towards removing the gender pay gap, increasing women in leadership positions, and removing barriers that may prevent women from taking that next role or challenge. 

But did you know, we’re still really far away?

“Globally, women account for only 16% of managers in the information technology industry…..the gender gap continues in the C-suite, where women are only 3% of CEOs and 20% of CFOs.” (Catalyst.org)

“Women in Canada Are Less Likely to Enter, More Likely to Leave STEM Fields.” (Catalyst.org)

“Only about 25% of salespeople in technology are women.” (Mashable)

A lot of these facts above are true because many women have been fighting an uphill battle for much of their life trying to justify and prove why they are smart enough, strong enough or just outright exceptional and shouldn’t be underestimated. You might be thinking, “hey, my company is actually 50% women” or…. “my company pays men and women equally”...and although those statements may be true, the deep rooted reasons on why women sometimes don’t put their hand up may be from something that happened years or even decades ago. 

For me, that first moment was when I was 18 years old when I was studying for my Bachelor of Science in hopes of becoming a doctor. In my first-year physics lab, my teaching assistant, who was a male, came around the room and asked everyone why they were taking that lab. When he got to me my answer was “I want to be a doctor.” His response to me was, “you know you have to be really smart to do that right?” …. I was speechless.

From that day forward I was motivated to prove him wrong, and prove to the entire world that women can do whatever they want to do in life (including a career in STEM, if they so chose). Shortly after that lab, I changed my mind and wanted to go into optometry school instead. I finished my Bachelor of Science, wrote my optometry entrance exam, interviewed at three top schools in the US and got accepted to all three schools. At that moment, I knew that I could do whatever I set my mind to, and that me being a woman had nothing to do with my potential. 

(If you look at my LinkedIn profile, you’ll learn that I didn’t actually end up going to optometry school. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that maybe sales was for me, but that feeling I felt that day in my physics lab still fuels my fire each day.)

Now I’ll tell you something; I was lucky. My mom was one badass woman. She was the breadwinner of my family. She owned her own business when I was young, then went back to school to pursue an MBA when my sister and I were both under the age of 7 and then worked her way up in the corporate world as a business development and marketing executive. From my point of view, this is what a woman does; she works hard, kicks butt every day, and comes home to her family each night.

As I grew older, I learned that although my mom was off crushing it each day in her job, she was not without her challenges. My mom at the time worked mainly for food manufacturing companies which were largely male dominated industries. Even though she came into each of these roles with more experience than most, she was often judged based on her gender or appearance which made her constantly have a guard up in the workplace. There was one incident in particular that really left her in shock. During her time with one employer, she was exposed to something she hadn’t quite experienced before. She came into this organization in a sales role with a ton of experience in the field and was considered an "expert" but one day, she was in the boardroom with the executive team discussing sales opportunities when all of a sudden…right in front of her…they made the statement that they should send in 'Jane' (less than a year in the industry) to make the sale because she was young and very attractive.  My mom sat back and thought, “wow”.

Can you believe it? Right in front of her? When I heard this story I was shook, but also not surprised at the same time. It’s stories like these that remind us that although we’ve come a long way, but many of us are not without our battle wounds, still trying to heal and avoid feeling the imposter syndrome or insecurities that we’ve built up over time.

So many women have stories like the ones I just told, and have fought hard, just like myself, to get to where we are today. Some of us have been lucky to have other female mentors and mentees along the way (like my mom and so many other mentors I have in my life today and in the past), but others are still sitting on the sidelines, maybe questioning if they should apply for that next promotion or unsure if the “technology” industry (or any other “male dominant industry) is right for them.

My challenge to you: if you’re a female, find one female mentor, and one female mentee. If you’re a male, do the same! Find a female who you can help rise up and look to seek mentorship from a female you admire or look up to. 

Today I’ll step up to my own challenge, if you’re a woman new in tech sales or looking to get into tech sales, please send me a note! I’d love to set up an open “ask me anything” session to help provide advice and insight to anyone who is interested. (Reach out to me on LinkedIn!)

It’s time we all step up, remove bias from the workplace and every other part of our lives, and help women rise up and see and experience their full potential.

I’ll leave you with this last statement by the incredible, unfiltered, Glennon Doyle:

“I looked hard at my faith, my friendships, my work, my sexuality, my entire life and asked: How much of this was my idea?…Who was I before I became who the world told me to be?” 

- Glennon Doyle