Conscious VS Unconscious Bias
An observation of gender (im)balance, awareness and prejudice in the tech industry in Ireland.
When I was completing my Specialist Diploma in HR Management, the final element was to write a paper on an area that most resonated with me. Bias has always been something I have had a strong interest in and, at the time of writing, we weren’t long out of Covid. So many people’s lives had changed, and from the perspective of growing teams I felt that tech in particular carried a lot of inherited bias. Be that ways of working (the remote/ hybrid/ onsite debate), the reality of career progression while also having a life outside of the workplace, and even interview processes themselves.
I wanted to share this as I feel there is so much we can all learn and implement to improve not only the workplace, but the lives of the people who work there. Without people there are no companies. People are not resources, they’re assets.
*Appendixes and research findings have been removed for readability.
Introduction
Unconscious bias is a part of human nature. It’s an unintentional, subjective opinion that is influenced during our formative years; the environment in which we were raised, the culture we are surrounded by, the actions of caregivers, media etc.
While unintentional, it can play a large part when it comes to diversity within the tech sector. This industry is predominantly male, with only a quarter of the estimated 120,000 people in Ireland working in this area being women. (Department of Education, 2022)
While you can’t discriminate, by law, against a person based on their gender, (Ireland. Employment Equality Act 1998-2015) it’s well known in the tech space in Ireland that this does happen, although is not publicly spoken about. Companies have diversity goals, and when setting their hiring plans for the year, many put in place a quota to hire a certain percentage of women. Of course it’s a great step towards gender equality, but given that you can’t discriminate based on gender, the question remains as to whether being consciously biased in the hiring process has an overall impact on diversity itself.
Over the last number of years there has been a huge focus on women in STEM, beginning from school level with the publication of the STEM Education Policy (Department of Education, 2017) and providing pathways for women to enter this traditionally male dominated world.
The focus on ensuring that women are being given equal access to these career pathways is ultimately for a good reason when you consider the existing gender imbalance, but it does open up a debate. If a hiring manager is being consciously biased for the purpose of gender equality, while for a noble cause, it is still discriminatory. Equally, unconscious bias, while a human reaction, can also lead to discrimination.
The purpose of this text is to understand the approach that companies are taking when it comes to gender equality in the workplace, and how both conscious and unconscious bias plays a part.
What is Unconscious and Conscious Bias?
Unconscious bias is the act of making a decision about someone or something based on personal feelings. It isn’t intentional and it occurs automatically. Psychologist Daniel Kahneman explores how the brain operates with two systems - system one and system two. (Kahneman, 2011, Part 1, 4% - 6%)
System one requires no effort and isn’t intentional, it’s a person’s natural or automatic response, like detecting strong emotion in a person. System two requires effort, thought and coming to a conclusion based on thinking, such as trying to identify a person in a crowd with a specific hair colour or tattoo. The two systems, while working at a different speed, also work together. System two is influenced by the automatic thoughts of system one, and are then consciously digested.
Conscious bias could, possibly, then be outlined as being driven by system two, which requires thinking and effort. We make a conscious decision about a scenario and need to pay attention.
If we consider Kahneman’s research and apply it to the hiring process, it explains how unconscious bias is something that most people aren’t aware of in themselves, as well as how attempts to reduce it require more thought and effort.
There are many types of biases that play a part in hiring processes, however, which are ultimately unconscious. In a selection process affinity bias, for example, would see a hiring manager look to hire someone who is quite similar to themselves. Conformity bias would mean that a hiring manager conforms to the opinions of others on the hiring panel, whereas confirmation bias is making an assumption, or pre-empting, an outcome for a candidate based on previous personal experience rather than the facts in front of them.
Unconscious bias is highly unlikely to ever be eradicated, however steps can be taken to reduce it through education.
Gender Bias and Diversity in the Hiring Process
Gender bias occurs when a person is given preferential, or non-preferential, treatment based on their gender. Within Ireland, of the 120,000 people working in the tech industry, if a quarter of them are women then one could query if bias plays a role in these figures.
In order to get data as accurate as possible, I conducted my own research with some hiring managers in my network. To ensure that it was only hiring managers who were completing the questions, I sent them individually to each person. All are within the tech sector and are a mix between B2B, B2C, SaaS and consulting. From the eight participants the majority of their teams are male-orientated, with only two teams having more women, however over 60% of participants felt that a gender balanced team should be a priority. With that being said, those who felt it shouldn’t be a priority had thought out reasoning for their answers. Of the participants who felt gender equality should be a priority, they recognised that there is an inherent bias in the tech industry and an under-representation of women, so effort must be made, as well as acknowledging that women should feel comfortable in the workplace (which would lean towards affinity bias, being able to see people like yourself, if it’s the opinion of a woman). Of those who said a gender balanced team shouldn’t be a priority, their reasoning was to ensure that there was no bias in either direction and that candidates are considered based on merit alone.
When asked about the most effective ways to reduce unconscious bias in teams, one participant noted that they ask for all resumes to be removed of names and pronouns, so that when reviewing a candidate’s experience they are assessing them only on their ability to do the job. Perhaps using this method is the fairest way, although with the lack of women in the tech industry it could add to the difficulty for women to access the pathway to leadership, as a number of other participants felt that having a diverse leadership group is the key. Removing the illusion of a “boys club”, whether it exists or not, and for candidates to see a balanced leadership team is something that trickles down to the rest of the company. It was also quite interesting to note that one participant commented on the language used in job adverts, that it is important to use less words that would be considered male-orientated, and stay away from listing out the requirements that the company needs. Perhaps, unconsciously, people are not aware of the impact that written words can have, so it certainly makes sense to approach job adverts with thought and consideration for the words used and who will be reading them.
Why is there a Gender Imbalance in the Tech Industry?
There isn’t one correct answer, but more so a number of reasons that contribute to the lack of women in tech. Of the participant answers, one noted that in their experience of receiving job applications they tend to frequently receive a higher number of male applicants, who do not meet all of the job requirements - but all of the women who apply meet every criteria. Pairing this with the acknowledgement of the Department of Education, in collaboration with the Gender Balance in STEM Advisory Group, to the commitment of STEM Education the vision of which is, in part, to improve gender balance in this area, education also plays a significant factor (Department of Education, 2022).
These are areas which have been discussed for many years, however what was quite unexpected and has been a factor in recent years was the impact that COVID-19 had, which has in some ways carried over to today’s hybrid workplace. The National Women’s Council surveyed over 1,400 women in Ireland during May 2020, and published a report around the impact that COVID-19 had on women who were also caregivers (National Women’s Council, 2020).
While this report wasn’t specifically in relation to women working in the tech industry, it did highlight the gender stereotypes in today’s world, and the fact that it’s still very much present.
Of their survey group, they confirmed that 71.5% of women were providing care (whether for children, adults, or both) during COVID-19, and that this was in addition to over 1,000 women also being employed at that time and another adult being in the household who didn’t require care.
While this doesn’t account for all of the reasoning as to why there’s a gender imbalance in this industry, this research highlights two core areas; education and the stereotype of women being the caregiver (even when also in employment). This has a knock on effect when it comes to women being given the opportunity for career progression - which may be a personal choice to choose not to seek progression out, or it may be due to unconscious bias in the hiring process when considering that a lot of women may also be caregivers/ may need flexibility for family reasons. Thankfully, there are laws in place in Ireland that prohibits outright discrimination (Ireland. Employment Equality Act 1998-2015). That alone prevents an element of conscious bias coming into play during hiring processes, but it’s the unconscious bias that each individual needs to recognise, and be educated in, in order for the industry to have the best foot forward when it comes to narrowing the gender gap.
Hybrid Working
While hybrid working has transformed the lives of many, from removing commute time and having the flexibility to balance work and home life, it has also brought about a positive change when it comes to women in senior management positions in the workplace.
Compared to 2022, Grant Thornton found there was a 10% increase in the number of women who hold senior management positions, and that now 40% of women in Ireland hold senior management roles - compared to 30% in 2022 (Information available from their website. Grant Thornton, 2023). While COVID-19 did see the majority of carers in the home being women, the flexibility to work from home that most businesses have committed to has given women the opportunity for career progression. There’s still work to be done, however, as in their report Grant Thornton found that 15% of Irish businesses had no women in senior management or leadership roles, which could very well be as a result of whether they allow hybrid working practices or not.
While, again, not specific to the tech industry, but still shining a light on gender parity in Ireland, the Women in Business 2023 report found that businesses who offer flexible working arrangements had a higher percentage of women in senior leadership roles - 36% in organisations that offer full flexibility, 34% in companies who have a hybrid model, and just 29% in companies who are predominately office based.
HR Director and CFO have been recorded as the positions that women in senior management hold (Grant Thornton, 2023, Page 15), but there’s no reason that the same can’t be achieved within the tech industry. If the progress over the last year continues, even if it is slow, it tells us that companies should look within themselves at their working practices to ensure that opportunities are available to all. Flexible working practices are beneficial not only to both men and women who need to balance work and home, but it would also allow people living with certain disabilities the opportunity for progression.
The old way of thinking about productivity - if you’re not in the office you’re not working - has been shown to be incorrect for the most part, so if businesses continue to embrace the changes over the last number of years and implement hybrid working in a way that works for them and their employees, it could have an overwhelmingly positive outcome. There is a bias that is still present when it comes to people who work in the office or work hybrid, although as we move forward that needs to be mitigated. Someone working in the office may be seen, but not necessarily more productive. If anything, people are at their best selves when they work in an environment that suits them best.
What can the Tech Industry Do?
While bias can be unconscious, from everything to where a person prefers to work, their home life, their gender etc, there are steps that companies can put in place to help reduce bias. It doesn’t start from the hiring process, but rather the employer brand being welcoming and open to people of all genders, backgrounds, nationalities etc. Once the workplace is welcoming people will want to be part of that, so then comes the hiring approach.
A hiring process should be built to suit the company. It’s not a one size fits all approach, and should be tailored, but could look like some of the following examples:
A candidate is hired on merit only. There are no quotas or structures to correct for bias
Lightweight process changes, to ensure unconscious bias is mitigated as much as possible. This could include training for managers etc.
Consciously biasing towards under-represented groups, having quotas in place etc.
In this way, companies are being intentional about what direction their hiring goes in and can build out an appropriate scoring system that each manager will adhere to during the process. From personal experience, however, I’ve seen all of these processes played out and have also witnessed clear bias in hiring even when a defined scorecard system had been established.
With that being said, again from my own experience, it seems as though the companies who have been intentionally biased with hiring were doing so because of the lack of female candidates. Diversity was of huge importance, and something that was strived for, so I have experienced scenarios where hiring managers are faced with wanting to improve diversity (even if being consciously biased towards one gender) but also follow interview rubrics. While they may not have ticked every box throughout the interview process, the approach wasn’t to hire anyway based on gender, but rather think about how they could offer training to help close that skills gap - education.
Touching back on one of my research participant's comments around language used in adverts, this is also an area that tech companies could work on. According to a report from the International Labour Organisation published in 2017 (International Labour Organisation, 2017) language can subtly cause unconscious bias, even if it’s not intentional. They found that by using certain words in a job advert to describe the skills or ideal candidate they were looking for, those words can be unconsciously associated with gender. The words “dominant” or “friendly” when used to describe a person would generally make you think of a specific gender, so the power of language really needs to be considered by companies when it comes to creating a culture where bias isn’t at the centre.
Out of the participants from my own research, some mentioned that the solution comes down to education - investment in STEM at school level. This in itself makes sense, if children are taught something from childhood then they will have an excellent foundation of knowledge, however I don’t believe that this responsibility should be taken on by schools alone. That almost hands off the problem to someone else.
Tech companies have the best people in their field. If, like one incident I witnessed, companies thought about how they could help develop and train employees, then surely that would have a more immediate impact? That’s not to say that learning from school level isn’t beneficial, but if companies want to be part of the solution, have balance and reduce bias, then looking at how they can contribute to the education side would surely have a positive impact.
Bias in itself is either automatic or thought through, it’s system one or system two. In an ideal world there wouldn’t be a need to focus on STEM education for one gender over another, but it’s the reality we live in. One participant from my own research noted that it’s possible for the tech industry to achieve gender equality (granted, not overnight) but it requires the will to do so. To me, it seems as though tech companies need to do more than have a hiring bias towards a specific gender/ under-represented group as that could potentially lead to an unconscious belief that people get jobs simply to tick a box. They’re the ones in the business, and have the tools to help today.
What Does the Future Look Like?
It’s difficult to say what the future looks like, but things have changed in the last few years in terms of awareness around equality and bias. If hiring managers, who are directly responsible for who joins their team, are aware of their own unconscious bias then that goes a long way. Education isn’t just about STEM programmes at school level, it’s about educating the people you work with and actively trying to mitigate as much unconscious bias as possible when it comes to, in this case, the gender balance in tech.
The Future of Women in Tech group, which is a programme developed by International Connector and the Australian American Chamber of Commerce, published a report in 2020 to understand the experience of women in tech (International Connector, 2020). As part of this report, they also looked to understand potential solutions to some core areas where women face an uphill battle - unconscious bias being one. While similar solutions around education, a balanced leadership team and also being aware of sexism in the workplace were mentioned, something that stuck out for me was that women should own their role and have the confidence to pursue progression even if they don’t meet 100% of the requirements.
Conscious and unconscious bias can most certainly play a part in hiring processes, and is very much alive within the tech industry, but as humans we can also be biased towards ourselves and what we believe we can do. A huge change needs to happen here, alongside the industry as a whole becoming more aware of the part they play.
The founder of Girls Who Code, Reshma Saujani, spoke in 2016 on a TED Talk about how stereotypes and bias from childhood can continue into adulthood and influence whether to apply for a job or not (Saujani, 2016). She mentioned that, as children, girls are taught to be perfect or sweet, but that boys are taught to take risks and be brave. This may absolutely be unconscious, but it’s incredibly interesting to see how the way that we are raised can subconsciously determine the future opportunities we go for (or don’t go for) based on our gender.
My first sentence in this assignment was that unconscious bias is a part of human nature, it’s unintentional and influenced during childhood. When writing that sentence I was considering unconscious bias that people have towards other people, but now I think that part of the solution to bias - not only within tech - is not to be biased towards ourselves, consciously or unconsciously.
The Future of Women in Tech group and Reshma Saujani have highlighted something critical, which I believe combined with the efforts of government bodies, unconscious bias training, D&I initiatives and the countless number of people who are dedicating time to elevate and educate each other - women need to own their role, even if they’re the only woman in the room, look for progression even if all of the boxes aren’t ticked, and don’t be self-biased.
The future of bias and how it influences gender balance, or imbalance, within tech isn’t clear, but steps are being taken. If each company, each hiring manager and each person takes the shared responsibility of working together to reduce bias in all of its forms we’ll get there sooner. Why wait for someone to do something, when you can make a start yourself?
