“She’s Got This” aims to raise awareness about the problems unconscious gender bias causes in Swedish media and tech companies.
Norwegian non-profit group “She’s Got This” turned to Cecilie Moxheim and Tara Derakshan to lead a Swedish campaign – ShesGotThisSweden – which launched on November 14. The goal is to start a discussion which includes both men and women about unconscious bias so that we can all work together to effectively address it. Workaround supports #ShesGotThis, which is already pulling in support from well-known companies such as Bonnier and Arlanda Express.
Unconscious bias occurs when we automatically make an assumption about somebody’s profession or capabilities based on their apparent membership in a given group, such as gender or nationality. It is built on damaging stereotypes we are all familiar with where many people automatically associate certain professions or types of work with a gender. For example, if asked to picture a person who is an airplane pilot and to also picture a stay-at-home parent, there is a good chance you will automatically picture a man and a woman, respectively, without even thinking about it.
In a study conducted by Harvard and McKinsey & Co, men and women were asked to give identical pitches to investors where all factors were identical except the gender of the person pitching. The results were stark: 68% of investors were willing to invest in the men whereas only 32% were willing to do the same for the women, even though the business idea and script for the pitch were the same.
While many of these stereotypes are not as strong as they once were, many stereotypes live on as biases without us realizing it, impacting our actions and choices in serious ways we don’t always recognize. Unfortunately, these actions added together have a damaging impact on equality within our society.
It’s clear we still have a lot of work to do combat unconscious gender bias. Workaround encourages you to also show your support for #ShesGotThis.