MODULE CONTENTS
This module looks at how gender and other stereotypes influence women's career progression and access to positions of responsibility. It explains how cognitive processes such as categorization shape our perceptions, and how these mental shortcuts can lead to prejudice and discrimination. The module shows the importance of understanding and deconstructing these stereotypes in order to promote equal opportunities and assess skills on objective criteria.
PEDAGOGICAL OBJECTIVES
Stereotypes : Barriers to Professional Equality
Gender stereotypes, and more broadly stereotypes linked to age, appearance or disability, continue to play a major role in professional inequality, particularly when it comes to women's access to positions of responsibility. The stereotype of men as natural leaders and women as natural helpers is still widespread, and helps to keep women out of positions deemed "incompatible" with them.
These stereotypes are often unconscious, based on cognitive processes such as categorization. Faced with the complexity of the world, our brains tend to "sort" people into groups based on visible characteristics such as gender, appearance or origin. While this categorization helps to simplify our environment, it can also lead to snap, arbitrary judgments, where people are reduced to stereotypes rather than considered for their unique skills.
Stereotyping often reinforces itself in a vicious circle. For example, if a woman isn't thought to have the necessary qualities for a position of responsibility, she won't be offered it. And if we see few women in these positions, we'll conclude that they're not for them. In this way, stereotypes fuel prejudice and discrimination, whether in recruitment, promotion or pay.
These unconscious biases are at the root of unequal treatment in the workplace. Identifying and deconstructing these stereotypes is therefore essential to promoting equal opportunities and ensuring that promotions and recruitment are based on merit and individual skills, rather than on prejudices inherited from culture or personal history.
In short, becoming aware of our stereotypes and deconstructing them opens the door to all talents, removing unconscious obstacles to professional equality.
