Dig deep into your unconscious biases—whether you're a man or a woman—and think about the women in leadership roles you’ve encountered. How do you treat them in your mind? I came across a study on leadership, and the findings were shocking.
In the study, participants were asked to evaluate a leader who made a mistake. They were split into groups—some were told the leader was a man, others were told it was a woman. The female leader’s rating dropped 30%, while the male leader’s dropped only 10%. Same mistake, wildly different judgment.
The researchers tested different scenarios—roles that are traditionally held by men, like a police chief, and roles typically held by women. In one case, they looked at a man leading a women’s college. When he made a mistake, his rating dropped too, but not as much. This just goes to show how, when people think someone doesn’t belong in a role, every mistake reinforces the belief that they shouldn't be there.
When women succeed, it feels like they must be extraordinary. If you don’t see many women in these positions and suddenly you encounter one, it’s natural to think: She must be something special. You start analyzing her to understand what makes her so exceptional? And if she makes a mistake? It’s like, Ah, I knew it. She wasn’t that special after all.
The level of analysis and judgment women face is never an issue for men. They fit into these roles effortlessly—because that’s what we’re used to seeing, over and over. It feels normal and natural to see men at the top of tech roles. This familiarity makes it easier for men to feel they belong, while women are often left wrestling with self-doubt, questioning whether they need to be exceptional just to be worthy.
This creates a strange, contradictory cycle. We expect women to be extraordinary to earn their spot, but the moment they falter, it confirms a bias that they never really deserved to be there in the first place. This makes it incredibly difficult to advance women in leadership. To break this cycle, we need to confront our unconscious biases—and that’s not easy.
Biases aren’t just prejudices we can turn off with a switch. Unconscious bias is like an unnamed emotion. You don’t really recognize it until you sit with it. Corporate bias training usually tells us what to do or not do, but it doesn’t help us dig into our own minds and recognize the bias within ourselves. Even women can hold these biases against other women. It’s not deliberate; it’s what we’ve absorbed from society and our own experiences.
It’s tough to change this mindset. The solution isn't one thing—it’s many. We need more women in leadership roles—plain and simple. The more we see women in these spaces, the less exceptional it will feel. And the less exceptional it feels, the more it normalizes their presence and makes room for others to follow.
At The Lady in Tech, we’re working toward this by showing women in leadership and problem-solving roles through our blogs, social media, and merchandise. Representation matters. The more we see women in these roles, the more it reshapes our expectations—not just for others, but for ourselves too.
It’s not about faking it until you make it. It’s about highlighting what’s already here. But we need to see it. We need little girls to see it, too. That’s how real change starts.e
