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I understood gender discrimination once I added “Mr.” to my resume

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Re: I understood gender discrimination once I added “Mr.” to my resume

#51

Post by sp332 »

thehme wrote: post #26

This is so sad...wow! I cannot imagine what goes through people's heads when they see a very qualifies individual and then they decide it's a woman and skip even considering her.

They never see the qualified individual. They trained their brain to do pattern-recognition on the resume for quick filtering, and women just don't fit the pattern. They probably don't even realize they've trained themselves to ignore women like you don't pay attention to the weight of the shirt on your back. It doesn't rise to the level of consciousness.

Re: I understood gender discrimination once I added “Mr.” to my resume

#53

Post by racl101 »

speeder wrote: post #21
bitops wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's even sadder is that there's no obvious or easy way to fix it. There is no easy way to fix it, but there is a way to fix it. I won't go so far as to say that it's obvious to many people. The way to do it? Work to change men's attitudes and biases towards women. It can definitely be done, but it takes hard work and cultural change. I would recommend the book "The Macho Paradox" by Jackson Katz for anyone inter…

Why you need to change MEN attitudes? Most HR departments are staffed by women for example, they would be the ones that saw a "Mr." in the resume.

So true. Sometimes women don't realize they are their own enemy. A worked in an office where it was the women reinforcing the stereotypes about other women and they where the majority of the HR department. This was like 5 years ago. I found it perplexing that as intern the HR women thought me (a male) more competent and knowledgeable about their organization than some other female interns with more experience. I hate to say it, but I took advantage of the biases but I also kinda felt bad about it too in hindsight.

Re: I understood gender discrimination once I added “Mr.” to my resume

#54

Post by johnny99 »

noloqy wrote: post #29
cliveowen wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a simple way to fix it. Namely providing a means to submit your resume that anonymizes name, gender, age and anything that could bias the reviewer's assessment. The best HR departments already do that, at least that's the hope.

What's next? All the interviews have to take place in a dark room so that the interviewer can't see the color of the interviewee's skin?

It wouldn't be unprecedented. Symphonies regularly use "blind auditions," with the performer behind a screen, to prevent bias (typically against women). Blind auditions significantly improved women's chances of being selected, as related by Malcolm Gladwell in 'Blink'. Here's the original study he references:

http://public.econ.duke.edu/~hf14/teaching/povertydisc/readi...

Re: I understood gender discrimination once I added “Mr.” to my resume

#55

Post by larrys »

cupcake-unicorn wrote: post #23

I get this so much, although I've had the opposite experience, where when people notice that I'm female, certain companies get excited for the chance to have a "token woman" on their team. Isn't necessarily a bad thing. Anyway, it made me think of all the LinkedIn spam I get addressing me as sir, Mr., "we're looking for some cool dudes like yourself", etc. Sadly it's not just the gender thing that's going on here as…

"Although, I think that if I took some fancy photos of myself and primped myself up, I don't think it would do me any favors and I'd get some unwanted attention!"

My brain lit up on that sentence and I clicked on your profile to see what you looked like. (Happily married and all of that but men are visual)

Re: I understood gender discrimination once I added “Mr.” to my resume

#56

Post by zanny »

cupcake-unicorn wrote: post #23

I get this so much, although I've had the opposite experience, where when people notice that I'm female, certain companies get excited for the chance to have a "token woman" on their team. Isn't necessarily a bad thing. Anyway, it made me think of all the LinkedIn spam I get addressing me as sir, Mr., "we're looking for some cool dudes like yourself", etc. Sadly it's not just the gender thing that's going on here as…

Well, you might just be a male fan of MLP. It happens a lot nowadays!

I think it is a good thing it is harder to discriminate people on names, colors, etc. They are all superficial and have nothing to do with sexuality anyway. I think in the end just too many people care what chemical is more prominent in your body between testosterone and estrogen.

Re: I understood gender discrimination once I added “Mr.” to my resume

#57

Post by bitops »

speeder wrote: post #21
bitops wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's even sadder is that there's no obvious or easy way to fix it. There is no easy way to fix it, but there is a way to fix it. I won't go so far as to say that it's obvious to many people. The way to do it? Work to change men's attitudes and biases towards women. It can definitely be done, but it takes hard work and cultural change. I would recommend the book "The Macho Paradox" by Jackson Katz for anyone inter…

Why you need to change MEN attitudes? Most HR departments are staffed by women for example, they would be the ones that saw a "Mr." in the resume.

> Most HR departments are staffed by women for example

Do you see the irony in this statement?

Re: I understood gender discrimination once I added “Mr.” to my resume

#58

Post by dgabriel »

speeder wrote: post #21
bitops wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's even sadder is that there's no obvious or easy way to fix it. There is no easy way to fix it, but there is a way to fix it. I won't go so far as to say that it's obvious to many people. The way to do it? Work to change men's attitudes and biases towards women. It can definitely be done, but it takes hard work and cultural change. I would recommend the book "The Macho Paradox" by Jackson Katz for anyone inter…

Why you need to change MEN attitudes? Most HR departments are staffed by women for example, they would be the ones that saw a "Mr." in the resume.

We have to change everyone's attitudes, sure. Internalized sexism is a real thing.

Re: I understood gender discrimination once I added “Mr.” to my resume

#59

Post by larrys »

ds9 wrote: post #31

I was very surprised to see the admission of his giving family information. Employers are prohibited from asking such questions here in the US, and I've always thought it improper to put it on a resume. It either invites unfavorable discrimination or comes across as a ploy for sympathy or favoritism. It may have been a lesser factor in this case, but I would guess hardly anyone does this today, and I had thought it w…

"Employers are prohibited from asking such questions here in the US"

Regardless of what you can ask you can always ping people and find out answers.

You can discuss your own situation and see a reaction on the part of the person you are speaking with. Takes a bit of creativity.

I know of someone who wanted to hire only puerto ricans for his bricks and mortar store (forgetting the reason). So you can't advertise for "puerto ricans" but you can say "knowledge of spanish a plus".

Re: I understood gender discrimination once I added “Mr.” to my resume

#60

Post by bitops »

larrys wrote: post #49
bitops wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's even sadder is that there's no obvious or easy way to fix it. There is no easy way to fix it, but there is a way to fix it. I won't go so far as to say that it's obvious to many people. The way to do it? Work to change men's attitudes and biases towards women. It can definitely be done, but it takes hard work and cultural change. I would recommend the book "The Macho Paradox" by Jackson Katz for anyone inter…

"The way to do it? Work to change men's attitudes and biases towards women. It can definitely be done" Are you suggesting that as a hobby, a career, or? Who has the time or inclination to do that? "It can definitely be done" As a practical matter I would personally worry more about other things than spending time reversing established thought process and bias. Now of course if someone wants to start a movement or a n…

I'm suggesting that it be a focus in life - if it's one of your core values and you care about it, you'll naturally take the time and energy to work against it.

For example, many people on HN care about privacy and government intrusion. They don't need to be convinced as to why it's important to speak up about the NSA and the US treatment of Edward Snowden. People who care feel it's a personal imperative, so they do something about it.

I personally have the time and the inclination. Because it's something I care about. Maybe you don't care about it, that's your personal feeling, so you won't take the time. But I'm sure that there are other things in your life that you care about, and you do invest time in those things.

It's absolutely fine not to care about every social cause out there. I don't think we can expect everyone to care about everything. Just pick those things which matter most to you and work to do something about them.

As for a movement, there are a few out there that I'm aware of - in particular I am a big fan of the work of Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP).

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