For this day’s presentation, I decided to focus on the group that covered gender bias in IT management. I think that this topic is important because many people are aware of the low representation of women in IT jobs and it is important to try and understand why that may be. Managers are important in the processes of hiring, retaining, and firing employees. So, I think that is a good place to do research in and seeing what type of gender biases exist since they can ultimately decide who works for the company. If people did more research in this area and used that information to better train managers (not just in IT), I believe that there would be more equal gender representations in all fields of work. Equal representations of employees is important in a work environment in order to gain diverse thinking and collaboration, which would in turn make their products or services better.
The first thing I found interesting was when Kellan was talking about how from 1000+ different organizations, 65% of hiring managers who hire more than 20 people yearly said they would hire “Simon” over “Susan.” This shows an incredible amount of gender bias and we can see that it is something common, and not just relevant at one organization. This also reminded me of an article that I read about a man named Jose who just couldn’t seem to get hired anywhere. Then, he changed his name on his resume to Joe, and he started to receive job offers. Not only do people discriminate against women names, but also names common in other races. Names are more powerful in getting hired than you think because of the stereotypes that go along with them. Another thing I found interesting was when different employers reported that they are less interested in hiring, promoting, and educating working mothers compared to working fathers or childless employees. To a point, I can understand favoring childless employees because you would know that they wouldn’t have those extra responsibilities that might interfere with work. Though, I do not understand the difference between a working mother and a working father. Especially if it is past maternal or paternal leave, I wouldn’t think there would be a difference. I found that interesting and something I would like to hear more opinions on from those employers.
One of the questions that I still have for this topic is what was the gender distribution of the hiring managers in the study mentioned above. I am not saying that it is acceptable for males to recruit males, but I think it would be interesting, and also sad, if there was a good amount of women being biased towards males as well. Another question that I have is how exactly can we fix the issue of hiring managers wanting to hire more “Simon”s instead of “Susan”s? I feel that these types of biases are harder to permanently change in a person and these individuals cannot be forced into hiring more women just because they are women. So, I am wondering what the best way of solving that would be. Also, I am wondering why there is such a big pay gap between men and women. I always knew that there was one, but I never looked into why that is and it is a big reason why women leave their IT jobs. One last question I have is whether these biases exist when hiring people for internships instead of actual jobs.
This topic is extremely relevant to my future career aspirations because I could see myself finding a career in IT. I have now learned that I have a couple things going against me when applying for jobs. I am a woman, which automatically puts me at a disadvantage. If I were being considered next to a man with the same qualifications as me, I would probably not be the one offered the job. Hopefully, there will be some improvements in hiring practices by the time I get there.