According to a new research summary by Fast Company published by CNBC, gender-based judgments barely scratch the surface of ways professional women are criticised throughout their careers. Researchers found 30 common personality traits and identity-based characteristics that women say were used against them at work. “The summary point that we came to was that it didn't matter what the women were, they were never quite right,” said Amy Diehl, a researcher on the report alongside Leanne Dzubinski and Amber Stephenson, told CNBC.
The 30 characteristics that women say were used against them in the workplace include:
1. Accent
2. Age
3. Attractiveness
4. Body size
5. Class
6. Colour
7. Communication style
8. Cultural identity
9. Dietary restrictions
10. Education
11. Employment history
12. Ethnicity
13. Gender conformance
14. Health
15. Intellectual ability
16. Marital status
17. Nationality
18. Occupation
19. Occupational position
20. Parental status
21. Personality traits
22. Physical ability
23. Political preferences
24. Pregnancy
25. Race
26. Religion
27. Residential location
28. Seniority
29. Sexual orientation
30. Veteran status
Research also highlighted that another major point of criticism is parental status, and women can't win whether they have kids or not: One single, divorced lawyer and mother of pre-schoolers says she was passed up for career opportunities "due to a perception by my male bosses that I cannot or should not handle [larger matters]." Meanwhile, a child-free physician was expected to work harder and accomplish more than other female colleagues with child-care responsibilities. Bias based on race, ethnicity, color and nationality came up in a number of ways. Women of colour were targets of microaggressions in the workplace, like a Black faith-based leader who described being regularly talked over by white men, and a Filipina physician who's regularly mistaken for a nurse. There was even a double-standard in terms of how men and women were treated based on their health conditions. One physician developed ovarian cancer while serving as an officer in the public health service and responded to the study that "the plan was to discharge me ... even though men with prostate cancer didn't have to go through that."
“It didn't matter the characteristic, they were just being criticized for this and that and the other thing,” Diehl said. “We realised it wasn't because of that particular [issue]” but rather “the underlying gender bias was the cause, and the criticisms are really just excusing the women were given.”