Harvard President’s Comments Mirror Anti-woman Workplace Bias

Newswise — Despite the advances women have made in the workforce, attitudes like those expressed by Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers about women's ability to compete with men proves that very little has changed since the 1970s, according to Gettysburg College management Prof. Virginia Schein. Summers recently came under scrutiny for remarks he made during a conference in January. He referred to research that suggested women are innately less capable than men in subjects such as math and science, leading to women's underrepresentation in the upper levels professionally in science and engineering. In fact, Schein said in a speech to the British Psychological Society, bias against women is impeding their progress in the workplace. Schein told the group that her research shows that women are still perceived worldwide as inferior colleagues to their male counterparts. "Women are perceived as less likely than men to possess the characteristics, attitudes and temperaments required of successful mangers, therefore, a bias is present against women in managerial selection, placement and promotion decisions," she said in her speech, "Three Decades of Research on Gender Stereotyping and Requisite Management Characteristics: Implications for Women's Progress in Management Worldwide," delivered in January in Warwickshire, U.K. Although Schein has found global data that shows women are increasing their share of managerial positions, the rate of progress is slow and uneven. A major barrier to women's progress worldwide continues to be the gender stereotyping of the managerial position, according to Schein. "Over the course of three decades, males have continued to perceive men as more likely than women to possess characteristics necessary for managerial success," Schein said. "This attitude of 'to think manager is to think male' appears to be a global phenomenon." Schein's research also found that the trend is not about to change with a new generation. Undergraduate male management students in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, China and Japan hold views similar to those of male corporate executives who think women are less likely than men to have the characteristics necessary for managerial success. According to Schein, women's progress depends on recognizing the intractable nature of these negative attitudes and continually seeking ways to ensure that these attitudes do not derail their success. "The importance of legal pressures and the need to maintain and expand legal efforts are important," said Schein, citing a high-profile dispute last year involving Wal-Mart and a female manager who was not promoted. "We also need to challenge the 'corporate convenient' way of working and restructuring managerial work to facilitate a work and family interface." Schein received a bachelor's degree from Cornell University and earned a doctorate in industrial-organizational psychology from New York University. She is the author of "Working From the Margins: Voices of Mothers in Poverty" and co- author of "Power and Organization Development." Schein is president of the Work and Organizational Psychology Division of the International Association of Applied Psychology. Gettysburg College is a highly selective four-year residential college of liberal arts and sciences. With approximately 2,500 students, it is located on a 200-acre campus adjacent to Gettysburg National Military Park. The college was founded in 1832.