Summary
Highlights
Kristen Pressner, despite being a woman leader and working in human resources, reveals her personal bias against women leaders. She recounts an incident where she reacted differently to compensation requests from a male and a female team member, leading her to question her own impartiality.
Pressner explains unconscious bias as a concept backed by neuroscience. Our brains take shortcuts to manage information, forming patterns based on life experiences. While these shortcuts are efficient, they can lead to unconscious biases that cause us to act inconsistently with our values.
She highlights societal expectations: men are seen as assertive and driven ('taking charge'), while women are expected to be helpful and supportive ('taking care'). This ingrained perception can lead to unconscious biases, even in unexpected situations, such as her own personal life where she is the primary provider, yet still exhibited bias towards a female colleague seeking a raise.
To combat unconscious bias, Pressner introduces the 'flip it to test it' method. This involves mentally swapping the gender or other characteristics of the person you're interacting with to see if your reaction changes. She provides examples, including humorous social media posts and even a sports team name, to illustrate how this simple mental exercise can reveal hidden biases.
Pressner urges everyone to double-check their reactions and considerations using the 'flip it to test it' approach. She concludes by emphasizing that while some may believe they are unbiased, regularly challenging our assumptions can lead to surprising discoveries and help us behave more consistently with our true values, ultimately fostering a more equitable world.