Breaking down stigmas: Women in the workplace // CHS Leeds 2023
Earlier this year, Nyomi Rose and I spoke at CHS Leeds on the topic of "Breaking down stigmas: women in the workplace". In my research for this talk, I read the recent report into the internal culture of the Metropolitan Police Service by Baronness Casey. It provided a foundation case study to refer to during our talk, and I purposefully used an example outside to but connected with the events industry so the audience could consider the content more objectively than if I focused on our industry. In addition, there is no available data in the events industry that could allow a similar review to take place.
The MPS was set up in 1829 by men to fight crimes against men. Today MPS officers make up 82% White and 71% Male, which does not represent the majority of Londoners. Baroness Casey's report highlighted a culture of misogyny, sexism and racism. This may be shocking to some, not to others, however, it is important to highlight what was exhumed in the MPS is happening in almost all organisations and industries, including the events industry. The MPS just got caught.
What Nyomi and I were conveying to the audience, was that the reason we believe we are in an environment that does not accept, support, nurture, and celebrate women to the extent it should, is because the modern working environment we are enveloped in was created by people who all looked and sounded the same. We call them 'men', but really 'men' can be replaced with any categorisation of living being that form a shared social identity and a resulting society around them, exclusive of others.
Modern working society was created by men, as women stayed home and raised children. Therefore it could only have reflected their needs, which unfortunately excluded anyone that didn’t look or behave like them, resulting in the in-group of white able bodied men and the out-group of anyone who didn’t fit that criteria. I will caveat here that there is no judgment or blame, we are where we are. We first need to understand why we have ended up where we are before we can work out the next step.
The modern working world was not designed with women's needs and so while we are trying very hard to make it fit, I believe we will never find a working solution, as we are trying to manipulate a system not designed for us. My approach is to abandon the system and start again. In order to do that, we first must become aware.
Are we trying to fit in?
What I have become fascinated with is the concept of "in-group" social identity and how in order to access, be accepted and remain a participant of a group, we could begin to behave in ways that we ourselves would find abhorrent at any other time². One could call it, brainwashed. It happened to me and it probably has happened to you. The reason? One needs only consider the amygdala (part of the brain associated with fight or flight), and our need for survival. If we can act like those in the group, then we stay alive. If we start to behave out of the status quo, then we risk being eaten/burned at the stake/killed/ousted - enter your metaphor here. Unsanctioned deviant behaviour is presumed to be accepted¹.
I believe it is this that allowed for the behaviour within the MPS to continue, as no one questioned it, everyone assumed it to be accepted. Anyone can read this report and read a sample of the WhatsApp messages between the police officers. Messages that could make anyone decide that they do not feel safe around police officers. Messages that discuss the rape and mistreatment of women and even officers’ spouses. This behaviour went unsanctioned, even encouraged, and if it was necessary to progress in the "in group" then there is a high chance it would not be called out by senior management.
What can we do?
Psychological Safety at work is paramount if we want to create an environment where everyone feels like they can contribute authentically. Nyomi and I shared some approaches that have worked for us:
Honour your boundaries
When our bodies say no, we need to honour that. No person is better or worse than us and we need to honour how we feel in any situation and not cross our own boundaries for the sake of another person. The more we honour our boundaries, the safer we feel, as we develop the trust within ourselves and we are no longer betraying our needs.
Develop self awareness
It is important to become aware of the impact we have on others, what our blind spots are, what our privilege is. The more aware we become of how we behave, the more we can become kinder to ourselves and to others.
References
Vider, S. (2004) “Rethinking Crowd Violence: Self-Categorization Theory and the Woodstock 1999 Riot.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 34(2) pp. 141–166.
Sykes, G. M. and Matza, D. (n.d.) ‘Techniques of Neutralization: A Theory of Delinquency.’ American Sociological Review, 22(6) pp. 664–670.