Of Unconscious Sexism
Nicholas Kristof’s piece in the Sunday New York Times (April 6th) made a great point - mainly in terms of the current political races, but also, I think, in how sexism comes up or doesn’t in the business realm. It isn’t a men versus women question, because anyone can be influenced by a gender stereotype without realizing it. Here’s Kristof:
“The challenge for women competing in politics or business is less misogyny than unconscious sexism: Americans don’t hate women, but they do frequently stereotype them as warm and friendly, creating a mismatch with the stereotype we hold of leaders as tough and strong. So voters (women as well as men, though a bit less so) may feel that a female candidate is not the right person for the job because of biases they’re not even aware of.”
At this moment in history, the political ramifications of sexism are significant (!), but I’m interested in the marketing ramifications as well. Do businesses and brands that serve women stereotype their female customers as warm/fuzzy, always liking gardening or recipes, solely emotion-driven beings, for example? If so, they miss the fact that women aren’t always and only warm/fuzzy thinkers, sometimes don’t garden or cook and often enough think linearly when getting to the bottomline of their purchase decision-making process. Nor are men always and only sticking to the facts as they buy (a little warm/fuzzy can easily get mixed in).
Kristof’s point is that sexism (and racism, which he also goes into in the article) is not necessarily anyone’s intention or ploy. Instead:
“We want to be unbiased, but our minds may overrule us.”
All any individual (voter or otherwise) can do is start to notice if/when we are doing it ourselves, and try to train our own brains for a less gender-stereotyped future.
Note: Just after I posted this, I saw that there had been a continuing NYT blog discussion between Kristof and his readers, about misogyny vs. sexism. There are some good points made from all sides.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:04 am
Andrea, I was delighted to find your blog while visiting Jason Fall’s gender related post, because he was commenting on my gender related post on “thrill of competition and trying harder”. Social Media Domino.
I think one of the best ways to break up stereotypical perception is to create relationships with people from many walks of life. I was fortunate to live in Japan for 20 years, where I got to know not only Japanese men and women but participated in a rich international foreign community there.