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Gender bias, even after all these years, remains one of the significant challenges that the hiring industry has faced. And it continues to remain so even after all these years. Combined with the issue of Gender Identity, we now have an environment where every organization needs to have robust policies to eliminate discrimination of any kind, such as racial bias, gender bias, socioeconomic bias, etc.
Gender Bias
According to the American Psychological Association (APA), Gender bias is defined as ‘any one of a variety of stereotypical beliefs or biases about individuals based on their gender.’ These biases can be either conscious, subconscious, or even unconscious, the last of which makes it an excellent challenge for recruiters.
Types of gender bias
In psychological terms, there are predominantly two types of gender bias: alpha bias and beta bias. These two types of biases have also been seen in the workplace, and they remain to this day. However, apart from these two, there are other biases as well.
Also Read: Why is Governance For System Bias Important For Recruitment?
Alpha bias
The Alpha bias emphasizes how the male and female genders are different. This type of bias states that the two genders are different from each other. The differences are based on a variety of features, be they physical or psychological. This type of bias states that there are gender-specific roles that can’t be done by the other gender.
Beta bias
The beat bias, on the other hand, tries to minimize the difference between men and women. The beta bias is further divided into two categories: Androcentrism and Gynocentrism.
Androcentrism states that male behavior is normal and female behavior is abnormal. This means that any study conducted under this would be ‘male-centered.’ More often than not, the female gender is portrayed as ‘weak.’
Gynocentrism is the opposite of the former, where the females’ views are taken into account. So, in this type of bias, it is the male who are usually the victims of discrimination.
Also Read: Colorado AI Law: A Complete Guide
Conscious bias
Also known as explicit bias, conscious bias occurs when a person takes clear action against a gender. In this type of gender bias, a person is actively engaged in exclusionary practices against someone from a specific gender. This type of bias has the most impact at the hiring level because the person exhibiting it is well entrenched in his ideology of discrimination.
Unconscious bias
The unconscious bias also known as the implicit bias is one where a person exhibits bias of which he may not be aware. This makes it very hard to find especially in the hiring industry. In addition, usually the person who displays such behavior may not have any malicious intent. This sole reason means the bias might be viewed as a professional decision rather than an unconscious gender bias.
Also Read: The EU AI Law, Explained in 2 Minutes
How to tackle gender bias
Despite so many new inductions in the hiring industry, gender bias issues are far from solved. So, how can we identify this bias and ensure there is a mechanism to help eliminate it?
Setting diversity goals
One major way an organization can eliminate gender bias is to set diversity goals. These policies ensure that companies hire from diverse backgrounds, including gender. This policy-making has been one of the most effective tools for eliminating bias. It has also ensured that the workplace has become diverse, thus attracting more people from both genders.
Diversify the hiring panel
While diversity goals are a great way to counter gender bias, to make them more effective, a company needs to ensure that its hiring team is filled with people of diverse backgrounds. This will allow them to automatically ensure that all genders have a level playing field. This, combined with the diversity goals, can be a much more effective and potent method of identifying gender bias.
Also Read: The Secret to Hiring Success: A Comprehensive Guide to Applicant Screening
Blind resume
One of the most effective ways to reduce bias is to use blind resumes. In this practice, any information on a resume that might give away a person’s physical characteristics is removed. Thus, the recruiter has only a candidate’s qualifications from which he can form an opinion. The major advantage of a blind resume is that it eliminates any kind of bias in the recruiters’ minds.
Eliminating unconscious bias
As mentioned earlier, unconscious bias is tough to detect. So, to combat it, the first step should be to acknowledge it. For this, the staff should be trained to identify such biases. One way to do this is to allow the hiring team to analyze their peers to identify any biases in their colleagues. The use of AI can be a very good way where technology could be used to minimize such biases.
A good example of this bias can be a study in the Sage Journals. The research found that make male scientists were more likely to hear the opinion of their male colleagues rather than their female ones. So identifying such biases can go a long way in eliminating gender bias.
Structured interviews
Use of structured interviews with pre-determined interviews ensures that everyone is treated fairly irrespective of their gender. As the questions are pre-determined every candidate is assessed on his qualifications and skills and not on factors that are not work related.
Use AI tools like BarRaiser.
One of the best ways to eliminate gender bias is to amalgamate AI tools like BarRaiser. With BarRaiser, organizations can be assured of a fair interview process. BarRaiser also give intensive training to interviewers and hiring managers. This allows for a seamless experience for both the interviewers and the interviewees. BarRaiser also ensures that no candidate is subjected to any questions or behavior that can be classified as discriminatory. Any such incident is immediately flagged and a report is created and sent to the higher ups.
Also Read: 6 Thing BarRaiser Do To Curb The Recruiting Biases
Conclusion
Gender bias can only be countered through a combination of several factors. This includes strong anti-biased hiring policies, the use of AI, and structured interviews. These methods also need to be constantly improved upon as more and more challenges emerge in the near future. Doing so will foster an environment where the workplace is not only diverse but also built on trust.
BarRaiser is the best AI interview platform that features structured interviews, AI-generated interview notes, interviewer training, and tools to ensure quality hiring while eliminating biases from the recruitment process. With BarRaiser’s support, you’ll be well-equipped to build a strong team of sales associates who will drive sales and deliver exceptional customer service.
