Hidden Figures Still Present in Today's Workplace
I watched the movie Hidden Figures at the weekend, a film that tells the true story of three African American women and the invaluable role they play in the NASA space missions of the 1960’s. Like many of the audience I gasped with shock at the explicit racist and sexist behaviour which was reinforced by both organisational and societal norms of the day. I then also cheered when each woman found her way to courageously push back.
Inspired by the story, I read up about Katherine Johnson, the main character, on Wikipedia. Johnson and her colleagues had to use restrooms and staff canteen separate to their white peers. This included Johnson having to make a 40-minute round trip across the complex when she needed to use the toilet. As a woman and “coloured” she was also not allowed to put her name on any report she authored, being reprimanded by her male boss when she persistently did. Speaking about her experience Johnson says despite knowing it was there, she "didn't feel the segregation at NASA, because everybody there was doing research. You had a mission and you worked on it, and it was important to you to do your job."
On reading her words, two things occur to me. Firstly, the power of doing work which we find purposeful and aligned with our capability, means we are able to transcend any challenges and discomfort we might face. Secondly, how the lack of consciousness around our prejudices and subsequent discrimination so powerfully ensures the maintaining of the status quo. As an audience, we could clearly see and judge as unacceptable the behaviors and practices illustrated in the movie. For those men and women working at that time, these practices were normal and acceptable. No one stepped back to take a look and consider the fairness of the situation. It took disruption to completing the work, plus persistence, courage and assertion from each of the women for things to gradually start changing.
Fast forward 50 years and it is a rare to see such explicit prejudice, and on International Women’s Day 2017 let’s celebrate how far we have come. That does not mean women don’t still have a steep hill to climb. Prejudice and unconscious bias are still very present, but now the terrain in much foggier, subtler or completely hidden from view. Picture these work scenario’s taken from today’s modern workplace:
Important networking takes place down the pub in the evening. Many women need and want to leave to collect children at this time and so are immediately excluded.
The female senior leader who after re-locating from a different country needs to take some time from her schedule to organise removals. Her male colleague unsympathetically boasts “I have a wife who sorts all that out”.
Whilst waiting for the meeting to start, male board members repeatedly discuss football or the latest high tech company car. Reinforcing their male bonds, the two female board members are not included in the banter.
A senior woman leader is excluded from entertaining her clients at the company’s corporate hospitality rugby event – it is a man only affair.
All these examples are from today’s blue chip, highly respected organisations. Seeing each situation written down makes observing and naming what is going on look easy, and in reality, it is not. Such behavior stems from our unconscious bias, something by its very nature which is out of our awareness. Women unfortunately experience the negative impact of it, but like a fish who cannot distinguish what water is whilst swimming in it, in the busy, task focused workplace it can be hard to pin down and address.
Katherine Johnson and her colleagues possessed talent and skills that were fundamental to NASA’s success. Similarly, so todays working women possess talent and skills and in what subtle ways are these still being held back?