Women have endured obstacles that are unique to and inherent with being female. Over decades of social change, women have gained access to many rights, roles, and opportunities that traditionally used to be reserved for their male counterparts. For instance, women have been granted more equal opportunities as business owners, executives, mentors, coaches, and other leadership roles compared to historical standards from even fifty years prior. There is also significantly more presence of females in male-dominated industries and professions like sports, politics, science industries, and Fortune 500 companies. Likewise, there have also been shifts in traditional roles typically expected to be fulfilled by females, such as men who are full-time parents, caregivers, and who maintain the household duties, while more women are now the primary income for their household. These monumental shifts in gender roles have shown notable progress from the former limited conceptualizations of female roles and capabilities. Nonetheless, research and social observations have found that biases and double standards continue to persist about women in several domains.
With regard to bias, this represents an opinion, feeling, or inclination that is typically a preconceived notion or unreasoned. A double standard is a set of principles or morals that is applied differently or more strictly to one specific group of people or circumstances. These factors may be unintentionally learned and applied to women, and yet they reinforce the discrepancy between beliefs and perceptions of men versus women. Some everyday examples would be to reference your boss without gender to an unknown individual, and a majority of the public assumes your boss is male. Additionally, a young girl with strong opinions can be referred to as bossy, whereas a male with the same characteristic can be referred to as assertive. An adolescent female may be told by an adult that she will make a good mother someday, and in contrast, an adolescent male is more commonly associated with potentially being a successful businessman. These contrasts can continue through adulthood such as assuming that a woman’s primary life goal is to have children, and a man’s primary life goal is to make money and be a provider. In the social and occupational domains, a leader viewed as strong and proactive is commonly associated with male figures, whereas these same traits exhibited by a woman may be perceived as overly demanding or unruly. There are also numerous double standards commonly applied to women, such as being expected to be confident yet not arrogant, take pride in yourself yet stay humble, compliant yet not too passive, assertive yet not too bold, take care of others but do not let yourself go, prioritize oneself yet not too self-centered, strong but not too overpowering, physically attractive yet stay modest, exhibit sex appeal yet not too revealing, and engage in self-care yet not too over indulgent. These conflicting standards make it difficult to navigate the socially acceptable norms compared to being true to oneself without shame, guilt, or disingenuous actions.
From a research perspective, there are inherent biases against women with regard to leadership roles and executive work positions. For instance, a study wrote a fictitious biography about a CEO and the related success of the company. For the sake of the study, the bio had no mention of a name or gender, and participants were asked whether they thought the CEO was male or female. A total of 96% of participants assumed the CEO was male. Next, the two identical bios were assigned as either male or female, given to two new groups of participants, and they were asked to rate the CEO according to several leadership qualities. The female CEO bio was rated higher on both “agentic” and “communal” qualities, suggesting that people perceive that a female must have overcome more barriers to become CEO’s, and thus are more competent leaders than their male peers. In sum, in spite of the bias that women are not assumed to be in managerial or executive work roles, those who are may be perceived as very capable with strong leadership qualities.
These themes in research note the importance of continuing to evolve the preconceived notions about women’s expectations, roles, and capabilities. In the workplace, women may be met with some resistance or discomfort regarding others’ biased perceptions based on gender roles. Women have overcome odds for decades with increasing social support, and awareness of the ongoing biases can help to break down barriers of the outdated standards instilled upon females across all aspects of life.