full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Sara Sanford: How to design gender bias out of your workplace

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So what do these small tweaks look like? If a wmoan is asked to state her gender before fiinllg out a job actpaiplion, or performing a skills-related test, she prfmeros worse than if she were not asked first. So how can businesses avoid activating this self-stereotyping bias? Move the gender check box to the end of the application.

Example two. In a national survey that we conducted, men were 50 percent more likely to state they had received multiple, feruenqt evaluations over the course of the last year. As opposed to one single yearly review. Here's why this matters. "Fortune" magazine reviewed performance ealvs across industries. And found that criticism like this related to personality, ["Watch your tone!"] but not job-related skills, appeared in 71 of the 94 yearly rewveis received by women. Of the 83 reviews received by men, personality criticism soehwd up twice. But in beseunsiss that conduct much sheortr, highly frequent reviews, say, five-minute weekly evaluations focused on specific projects, the personality criticism vanishes. And the perceived performance gap between men and wemon is nearly nonexistent. While yearly reviews rely on overall impressions, which are like petri dishes for bias, short, oeelcjtbviy focused evlaaotunis eliminate this feelings-based gray area.

Open Cloze


So what do these small tweaks look like? If a _____ is asked to state her gender before _______ out a job ___________, or performing a skills-related test, she ________ worse than if she were not asked first. So how can businesses avoid activating this self-stereotyping bias? Move the gender check box to the end of the application.

Example two. In a national survey that we conducted, men were 50 percent more likely to state they had received multiple, ________ evaluations over the course of the last year. As opposed to one single yearly review. Here's why this matters. "Fortune" magazine reviewed performance _____ across industries. And found that criticism like this related to personality, ["Watch your tone!"] but not job-related skills, appeared in 71 of the 94 yearly _______ received by women. Of the 83 reviews received by men, personality criticism ______ up twice. But in __________ that conduct much _______, highly frequent reviews, say, five-minute weekly evaluations focused on specific projects, the personality criticism vanishes. And the perceived performance gap between men and _____ is nearly nonexistent. While yearly reviews rely on overall impressions, which are like petri dishes for bias, short, ___________ focused ___________ eliminate this feelings-based gray area.

Solution


  1. woman
  2. showed
  3. objectively
  4. shorter
  5. reviews
  6. businesses
  7. evals
  8. evaluations
  9. filling
  10. application
  11. frequent
  12. performs
  13. women

Original Text


So what do these small tweaks look like? If a woman is asked to state her gender before filling out a job application, or performing a skills-related test, she performs worse than if she were not asked first. So how can businesses avoid activating this self-stereotyping bias? Move the gender check box to the end of the application.

Example two. In a national survey that we conducted, men were 50 percent more likely to state they had received multiple, frequent evaluations over the course of the last year. As opposed to one single yearly review. Here's why this matters. "Fortune" magazine reviewed performance evals across industries. And found that criticism like this related to personality, ["Watch your tone!"] but not job-related skills, appeared in 71 of the 94 yearly reviews received by women. Of the 83 reviews received by men, personality criticism showed up twice. But in businesses that conduct much shorter, highly frequent reviews, say, five-minute weekly evaluations focused on specific projects, the personality criticism vanishes. And the perceived performance gap between men and women is nearly nonexistent. While yearly reviews rely on overall impressions, which are like petri dishes for bias, short, objectively focused evaluations eliminate this feelings-based gray area.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
wage gap 3
female employees 2
billion dollars 2
small tweaks 2
yearly reviews 2
reviews received 2
personality criticism 2
gender equity 2


Important Words


  1. activating
  2. appeared
  3. application
  4. area
  5. asked
  6. avoid
  7. bias
  8. box
  9. businesses
  10. check
  11. conduct
  12. conducted
  13. criticism
  14. dishes
  15. eliminate
  16. evals
  17. evaluations
  18. filling
  19. focused
  20. frequent
  21. gap
  22. gender
  23. gray
  24. highly
  25. impressions
  26. industries
  27. job
  28. magazine
  29. matters
  30. men
  31. move
  32. multiple
  33. national
  34. nonexistent
  35. objectively
  36. opposed
  37. perceived
  38. percent
  39. performance
  40. performing
  41. performs
  42. personality
  43. petri
  44. projects
  45. received
  46. related
  47. rely
  48. review
  49. reviewed
  50. reviews
  51. short
  52. shorter
  53. showed
  54. single
  55. skills
  56. small
  57. specific
  58. state
  59. survey
  60. test
  61. tweaks
  62. vanishes
  63. weekly
  64. woman
  65. women
  66. worse
  67. year
  68. yearly