The subtle side of sexism.

• Author: Rhode, Deborah L.

Sexism is not a term often encountered in polite company. In conventional usage, it conveys discrimination based on sex and seems to require some conscious action. Yet there is also a subtle side of sexism: a cluster of social expectations and practices that reinforce sex-based inequality. They are the focus of discussion here, particularly as they affect the everyday lives of even well educated and economically privileged women, including those in the legal profession. (1) This focus is important, neither because sexism has no effect on men nor because these women bear the greatest costs of gender inequality. Rather, this emphasis is important because privileged women often have the greatest resources and incentives to challenge such inequality. Making those who occupy positions of influence more aware of unintentional biases and subtle sexism is a necessary step in the creation of a just society.

We are still a considerable distance from that goal. We see women so frequently in positions of power and in non-traditional occupations that we lose track of where they are absent as well as the dynamics that might explain why. The statistics are sobering. In the United States, women are a majority of the electorate but hold only a quarter of upper-level state governmental positions and sixteen percent of congressional seats. (2) More than half of college graduates but less than a quarter of full professors and a fifth of college presidents are female. (3) In management, women account for about a third of M.B.A. classes, but only two percent of Fortune 500 CEOs, six percent of top earners, eight percent of top leadership positions, and sixteen percent of board directors and corporate officers. (4) In law, women constitute about half of new entrants to the profession, but less than a fifth of law firm partners and Fortune 500 general counsels, and less than a third of federal judges and law school deans. (5) The gap widens for women of color, who account for only about four percent of congressional legislators, three percent of full professors, and one to two percent of corporate officers, top earners, law firm partners, and general counsels. (6) The leadership pipeline plainly leaks; women are lost at every stage.

There are also significant disparities in how women and men structure much of their non-working lives. As subsequent discussion notes, women spend significantly more time than men on caring for their families and on their personal appearance. These disparities are generally attributed not to sexism but to personal preference. However, discussions of women's "different choices" too frequently miss or marginalize the costs that those choices carry and the extent to which they are socially constructed and constrained.

Accordingly, this Article begins with an overview of gender differences in employment decisions. A wide variety of research finds that women are more likely than men to leave the paid labor force or to reduce their participation. Subsequent discussion explores some of the factors that explain women's choices to opt out and limit the opportunities for those who remain. First, gender stereotypes and unconscious bias concerning female competence and appropriately feminine behavior constitute significant barriers, particularly to leadership positions. Gender bias in mentoring and support networks and gender disparities in family responsibilities also perpetuate employment inequalities. Analysis then turns to sex-based differences in standards of appearance, the burden that they impose in everyday life, and the complex interrelationship between societal pressure and individual choice. Subsequent discussion explores the limits of law in challenging gender bias. The Article concludes by suggesting strategies for addressing the subtle side of sexism at individual, institutional, and societal levels.

1. INDIVIDUAL CHOICE IN WORKPLACE CONTEXTS

   The most common and, perhaps, most convenient explanation for women's under-representation in positions of the greatest power, status, and financial rewards has nothing to do with prejudice and everything to do with preference. The assumption is that women are choosing to opt out of full-time professional work or leadership tracks. (7) A cover story in the New York Times Magazine captured widely held views. In Lisa Belkin's account of the "opt-out revolution," women are more frequently underrepresented in leadership positions because "women are rejecting the workplace," not because "the workplace has failed women." (8) "Why don't women run the world?" asks Belkin. "Maybe it's because they don't want to." (9)

   Such explanations capture a partial truth. Women, including those with leadership credentials, do make different choices on average than men; more opt out for at least some period and more who stay remain childless. In a study by the Center for Work-Life Policy of some 3000 high-achieving American women and men (defined as those with graduate or professional degrees or high honors undergraduate degrees), nearly four in ten women reported leaving the work force voluntarily at some point over their careers. (10) The same proportion reported sometimes choosing a job with lesser compensation and fewer responsibilities than they were qualified to assume in order to accommodate family responsibilities. (11) By contrast, only one in ten men left the workforce primarily for family-related reasons. (12) Although other surveys find some variation in the number of women who opt out to accommodate domestic obligations, all of these studies find substantial gender differences. (13) Almost twenty percent of women with graduate or professional degrees are not in the labor force, compared with only five percent of similarly credentialed men. (14)

   Findings on career aspirations and expectations are also mixed, but gender differences typically emerge. A global survey of some 1200 executives found that substantially more women than men reported sacrificing career aspirations to accommodate personal and family concerns. (15) In one recent United States poll, a third of women (compared to only a fifth of men) reported significant conflicts between work and family and a need to make sacrifices involving hours, travel, and stress in order to advance professionally. (16) In most, although not all, studies, fewer highly qualified women than men described themselves as very ambitious or interested in a CEO position or elective political office. (17)

   What drops out of the opt-out narrative is the subtle side of sexism: the gender biases in work and family structures that drive women's decisions. Inequalities in workplace opportunities and family obligations, as well as the absence of adequate societal responses, influence women's choice to reduce or interrupt employment.

2. UNCONSCIOUS BIAS AND GENDER STEREOTYPES

   A wide array of social science research documents the role of "cognitive" or "unexamined" bias in accounting for gender inequality. (18) Such biases build on group-based stereotypes and have influences that are often outside individual awareness. Beginning at very early ages, children associate certain characteristics with particular social groups. (19) These group-based stereotypes predispose individuals to perceive information in ways that conform to pre-existing associations. (20) For example, if a working mother leaves the office early, her colleagues may infer that the reason involves family obligations. A working father's absence may not trigger the same assumption. Such cognitive bias can operate even if individuals' conscious beliefs are relatively free of prejudices.

   1. Competence

      Despite considerable progress over the last quarter century, women workers are still frequently perceived as less competent than men. The differences emerge clearly in experimental settings. Even where male and female performance is objectively equal, women are held to higher standards, and their competence is rated lower. (21) Resumes are evaluated more favorably when they carry male rather than female names. (22) Having children makes women, but not men, appear less competent and less available to meet workplace responsibilities than their childless counterparts. (23) The term "working father" is rarely used and carries none of the negative connotations of "working mother." Men also continue to be ranked higher than women when judged on most of the qualities associated with leadership: forceful, assertive, authoritative, and so forth. (24) People more readily credit men with leadership ability and accept men as leaders. (25) In one study where subjects were shown slides of a man seated at the head of a table for a meeting, they assumed that he was the leader. They did not make the same assumption when the person in that seat was a woman. (26)

      The problem is compounded by in-group favoritism, the preferences that individuals feel for those who are like them in salient respects such as sex, race, and ethnicity. Loyalty, cooperation, opportunities, and favorable evaluations are all greater for group members. (27) One of the most significant effects is the presumption of competence that dominant groups accord only to insiders. For example, men tend to attribute accomplishments of male colleagues to intrinsic characteristics, such as intelligence, drive, and commitment. By contrast, men often ascribe women's achievements to luck or special treatment. (28)

      The influence of these biases in any given workplace setting is hard to assess. It is noteworthy, however, that professional women frequently report being held to higher standards than their male colleagues and cite "male stereotyping and preconceptions" as a major barrier to advancement. (29) The combined effect of racial and gender stereotypes create particular problems for women of color. Among lawyers, forty-four percent of women of color, compared with thirty-nine percent of white women and only two percent of white men...