Human Assets

The article focuses on women's sense of belonging which the researchers define in terms of a feeling of fitting in, belonging and membership as well as a sense of being valued and accepted. They also look at the influence of negative stereotypes on sense of belonging and examine the role of competing views on whether ability is fixed versus malleable. Their fairly obvious presumption was that sense of belonging would be harmed  by negatives stereotypes. In addition, they suggested that belonging would be harmed by messages that ability is fixed. "You're not as good and there's nothing you can do about it" is not an obvious encouragement. 

The researchers carried out a longitudinal study with mathematics students, measuring sense of belonging three times over a semester. They found that sense of belonging declined overall and, not surprisingly, that it was a predictor of women's  intent to pursue maths whatever the grades the students obtained.

The research also showed that women who perceived themselves in an environment espousing fixed ability and with high gender stereotyping were more susceptible to a decline in their sense of belonging. On the other hand those who perceived themselves in an environment where ability was seen as malleable maintained their sense of belonging despite gender stereotyping.  However and unexpectedly they also found that women who were in an environment suggesting ability is fixed obtained significantly higher grades but this was only the case when there was a low level of stereotyping.

Clearly the reasons for the lack of representation of women in the boardroom are many and making use of female talent right to the top of organisations will require more than a simple answer. However, the findings of this research seem relevant. While the results and hypotheses err on the obvious, the fact is that many women still find themselves in environments that discourage their sense of belonging in the boardroom.

Perhaps of greatest interest is the finding concerning the detrimental effect of an environment espousing relatively fixed ability coupled with the presence of stereotyping. The very language of talent is tilted in the direction of having it or not. Maybe organisations need to do more to ensure that development programmes run right through the glass ceiling to the top level. Otherwise, the subtle message might be that once you've reached a level in the hierarchy you are on your own and unfortunately women don't tend to have the necessary for the final heave to the top.

How can Human Assets help?

We understand the complexity of realising your diversity objectives. Ask any Chief Executive whether it's a good idea to make use of available talent and the answer will hardly startle. The difficulty is in identifying and overcoming all  the barriers that stop organisations being able to make use of the diversity of talent available. There isn't a single simple answer but many organisation could still do more to get the basics right. Checking on the factors that create or mar a sense of belonging is one of them.