Newsroom Notes: Subtle gender biases remain in business world

In the past few weeks, the newsroom has been busy with the usual weekly task of putting a newspaper together and the task of profiling the 20 Springfield area women we'll honor Oct. 16 at SBJ's 2003 Most Influential Women banquet.

While I won't give away the specifics of the glossy publication that will appear in the Oct. 20 issue of SBJ, I will note that one of the things we asked our honorees is whether they still consider this to be a "man's world."

The answers are varied and thought-provoking. The question of whether a "man's world" still exists is one that intrigues me.

As I creep up on the ripe old age of 30, I have just a few years of experience in the professional realm. (That's what happens when one goes to college on the six-year plan!) But I have to note that in hindsight, I can't really say that I've ever been made to feel less competent or less qualified based on my gender.

I can't speak for my entire generation, but I can't help thinking that my foremothers have accomplished much when it comes to making the workplace and business in general a place where men and women are able to function on equal playing grounds.

I'm not completely unaware of barriers society might place on individuals based on gender.

When I was in elementary and even high school, I was never all that good at math. While I don't remember specifically being told that boys were better at math, I do remember feeling as if that was the general attitude of my classmates and my teachers. Often, if I struggled with a particular problem, the teacher would ask a male classmate to step in and "help me out."

The insinuation that I picked up on was that poor little ol' me couldn't figure out the big math problem, so the "knight in shining armor" was going to fix it.

But at least for me, that attitude hasn't carried over into business, or to the workplace.

A couple of years ago, I worked with a woman who started working as a young woman in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when women were still fighting to get a foothold in the professional world. (At least, hearing her talk about it, that's the impression I got.)

This woman told me she had been paid significantly less than her male colleagues for the same job, even though her education and experience were similar.

The way she talked, she was still mad, decades later, at a system that she perceived to accept that a woman was worth less simply because she was a woman and nothing more.

She and I didn't always see eye-to-eye, and often, I think she tried to invoke a feminist spirit within me by suggesting that gender maybe played a role in some situations.

I remember one day, I just looked at her and said something to the effect that the bra-burners must have accomplished something because I had no idea what she was talking about.

The ironic thing is that I've caught myself doing what you might call reverse prejudice. My job requires that I call on area business owners and professionals regularly. More than once, I've made the assumption that a business owner, whose first name might be Chris or Gerri, is a man and asked for Mr. So-and-so. Same thing goes with certain industries, when I make an incorrect assumption about whether a person's male or female based on the job title or job description.

You'd think I'd know better. Or maybe that's a sign that we still have a ways to go in terms of gender equality.

I consider myself fortunate that I don't know what it's like to have to scramble and struggle to establish my foothold and my worth as a working woman. But maybe someday, maybe by the time my little girl grows up to be who-knows-what and you can bet that her mommy will tell her she can be anything she wants to be no one will think that boys are better at math, and people won't make assumptions about a person's gender based on their jobs.

I can only hope so.