Research Spotlight: Women in eLearning: Continuing the Conversation

In TheeLearning Guild’s newest white paper, eLearningauthor, educator, and business writing coach Cecelia Munzenmaier gathers themost recent research on women in eLearning and provides a framework forlaunching additional Guild-sponsored conversations on this topic during 2017. Guildresearch director Sharon Vipond provides a snapshot of 2017 salary survey datathat helps us better understand what we know about women in the field. AndJulie Dirksen, award-winning author and instructional strategist, contributesan updated assessment of “where we are now” in terms of women within theeLearning field.

Engaging with thought leaders

In addition,eight eLearning thought leaders also provide their practical, positive, andforward-looking insights on the challenges and opportunities faced by women ineLearning. Outreach and connection with thought leaders was one of the goals ofthis research effort. It was not only important to hear from the best andbrightest thinkers in our field, but also from those who have written on thesubject of women in eLearning and have contributed substantial insights to thisongoing discussion.

Exploring a spectrum of issues

The topics rangefrom current research to practical suggestions. Here is what you will learnfrom this valuable white paper:

• Whatcurrent research tells us about gender bias in the larger workforce, as well aswithin the eLearning field
• Whygender bias is a specific concern for learning leaders and practitioners
• Whatwe can do, as both individuals and organizations, to help eliminate gender biasin eLearning
• Whatsnapshot data from the 2017 salary survey reveals about women in The eLearningGuild’s global community, and what gender data comparisons can be made on thebasis of education level, years of industry experience, job focus, job level,and tenure in current position

Additionally, industry thought leaders provided insightsand advice in response to the following questions:

• Aswe begin 2017, what do you view as the most critical issues impacting gender inthe eLearning field?
• Whatdo you see as the single best way that others in the field can encourage andsupport female eLearning practitioners?
• Whatthree pieces of practical advice would you give to women in eLearning?

Note: Detailed citations andlinks for all source materials are provided in the white paper.

What makesgender bias a concern for eLearning practitioners?

The concern about companies’ inability to retain women hasparticular application to the eLearning industry. Women in technicalprofessions are more likely to feel that they are isolated and don’t fit in,according to a Stanford University report, Climbing the Technical Ladder. Thoughmost women in technology report loving their jobs, this sense of isolation isone reason women leave careers in IT, engineering, and scientific research atmuch higher levels than men. Another source of attrition is midcareer women’ssense that they have fewer opportunities to advance than their male colleagues.This loss of talent will make it difficult for technology-oriented companies tomaintain their current rates of growth and remain competitive, according to Catherine Ashcraft and Sarah Blithe.

In addition, eLearning professionals are in a uniqueposition to either reinforce or debunk gender stereotypes. “Learningprofessionals are often viewed as the ‘teachers’ of the organization,” notes Koreen Pagano.

We can teach without knowing it through the gender roles weportray in the scenarios we write, says Judy Katz. The images we choose can have tremendous power to model reality,writes Trina Rimmer in an article describing the difficulty of finding authenticimages for a training module on human trafficking. “It’s up to us to use ourdesign powers for the greater good—to shine light on all aspects of the humanexperience, particularly the darkest corners where learning can lead to real,positive change.”

As Katz and Rimmer both suggest, relatively small changes canhave a disproportionately large effect on the status quo. What can eLearningpractitioners do to promote gender equity within our industry?

What canwe do as individuals?

• Admit you may be biased. Those who acknowledge they might bebiased are less influenced by bias. Those who resist evidence of gender biasare more likely to make biased decisions, according to Ian Handley and co-authors.
• Reverse roles. “If you dislike the behavior of afemale employee,” suggest Adam Galinsky and Maurice Schweitzer, “ask yourself if you would have reacted the same way if you had seenthat behavior in a man.”
• Do a “flip test.” Kristen Pressner tests images or remarks for genderbias by switching the genders. It may sound natural for a female police officerto say she enjoys her job because it gives her a chance to work with children;does the statement have the same impact when it’s attributed to a male officer?
• Model diversity. Janet Crawford reports thatG-rated films made from 2006 to 2009 were four times more likely to cast menthan women in the roles of working professionals. In reality, slightly overhalf of professional jobs in the US are held by women. Ask yourself: How welldo the images and scenarios in my eLearning reflect gender diversity?
• Test yourself. Several implicit-bias testsare available at HarvardUniversity’s Project Implicit site (see the white paper for further informationabout this site).
• Control “manterrupters.” Women in the Obama White House usedthe technique of amplification to handle men who interrupted them duringmeetings. When a woman made a key point, another woman would repeat it andacknowledge the woman who made the contribution.
• Call out bias. David Kelly gives an example of how to challenge biased language respectfully in “Women in eLearning:Language, Gender Equality, and Leadership.”

What can we do asorganizations?

• Set clear performance standards. This encourages equity in promotiondecisions. It also discourages women’stendency to devalue their worth. “If your work is rejected for an obviously badreason, such as ‘it’s because you’re a woman,’ you can simply dismiss the onewho rejected you as biased and therefore not worth taking seriously. But ifsomeone tells you that you are less competent, it’s easy to accept as true,”notes Ilana Yurkiewicz.
• Mentor, then monitor. Catalyst found that leadershipprograms don’t increase the number of women leaders unless companies ensurethat women have equal opportunities to fill “hot jobs.”
• Diversify your board. Companies with stronger-than-averageperformance typically have three or more women on their boards, according to another Catalyst report. On arelated note, McKinsey calculated that racialdiversity also benefits the bottom line: “In the United States, there is a linear relationship between racial andethnic diversity and better financial performance: For every 10 percentincrease in racial and ethnic diversity on the senior-executive team, earningsbefore interest and taxes (EBIT) rise 0.8 percent.”
• Create an inclusive culture. “Inclusion is a choice. It is aboutmaking small shifts every day in our behaviors to help employees feel moreincluded at work,” says Catalyst CEO Deborah Gillis.Some of those choices are small but powerful: declining to laugh at a sexistjoke, or ensuring your professional network is gender-diverse. Others, likeadvocating for family leave policies and supporting the men and women who usethem, have implications for employee satisfaction, turnover, and even acompany’s stock price.
• Make gender equity a priority. McKinsey made little progress inrecruiting female consultants until it set explicit, top-down gender goals in2014. Within a year, the firm grew itspercentage of female consultants by 5 percent.
• Take advantage of critical mass. In her book Broad Influence, Jay Newton-Small notes that when women make upbetween 20 and 30 percent of organizations, change begins to happen. “Ifnumbers of women were lower than 20 percent, women’s voices weren’t heard:either they didn’t speak or men didn’t listen,” she writes. In fields wherewomen have achieved critical mass, she notes, they make things happen. Oncorporate boards, women have engaged the tough questions and mitigated risks.On the bench, they’ve developed “rocket dockets” to expedite child supportcases and so reduced the rate of domestic abuse. In Congress, they’vecollaborated on high-effort, consensus-building strategies to end deadlocksover budget deals and emissions standards. To sum up the benefits of criticalmass, Newton-Small quotes the founder of the National Women’s History Museum,Karen Staser: “A better world awaits the generation that absorbs what women andmen have to share about life from a joint perspective. Together, all things arepossible.”

To achieve that better world, we need to continue theconversation about gender equity at all levels. “This is a problem we can’tprocedure our way out of because it happens in our brains, and this is thesociety we grew up in,” says Joyce Bono, lead author of a study on managerial derailment. “Wehave to keep talking about it so we catch ourselves and our colleagues’ biases,and work together to reduce their negative effects on the mentorship andadvancement of women.”

Reflections on the conversation

Asmentioned earlier, outreach and connection with thought leaders was one of thegoals of this research effort. In addition to notable women thought leaders, we alsoasked several men to respond to our questions. This was important because, asAisha Taylor points out in her response, “we aren’t involving men in theconversation. Any solution to gender issues has to include men as a part of thediscussion.”

Recall that we posed three questions toour group of eight thought leaders. In talking to them about their potentialanswers, we stressed the need for practical, positive, and forward-lookinginsights that could create momentum for upcoming conversations in 2017 and beyond.

In fact, the common theme that ranthrough all three questions was forwardmovement into the future.Although we cannot change the past, we can arm ourselves with knowledge,skills, and insights to make things different in the future.

We encourage you to read thewhite paper and take a moment to review all of the thought leaders’ insights. Hereare several of the main themes and insights that we saw in their comments andadvice:

• Buildyour visibility and personal brand; clearly articulate your value.
• Geta mentor who can model female leadership and gender parity, or become a mentorto a female colleague yourself.
• Buildyour support system—what Trina Rimmer calls the “professional communitiesoutside your workplace” and “personal learning networks of trusted fellowpractitioners.”
• Embracethe fact that you are a woman. As Aisha Taylor says, “Being a woman is part ofthe diversity in the office; our opinions are different and valuableand important. You don’t have to hide that part of yourself or helpthe men in the office forget that you are a woman.”
• Speakup and raise personal awareness of bias. As Taylor notes, “If you review a storyboard that isn’tinclusive, say something. If you read a paper that feels like it’s missing aperspective, share your opinion.”
• Keep issues of gender parity front andcenter. Women should challenge behavior that discounts women, and, as EllenWagner says, we should also “provide support for the competent female voices inour respective universe.”

Join the conversation

Wenow invite you to join the conversation by reading the white paper and expanding your own knowledge base using theresources provided in this paper. You do not need to be a thought leader orindustry expert or published author. Your perspective is unique and valuable.In fact, let’s go back to what Julie Dirksen said in early 2015 about participating in this conversation and the adviceshe provided:

When we were talking, David Holcombe [founder, president,and CEO of The eLearning Guild] also reminded me, “The Guild has alwaysendeavored to also include people who aren’t the ‘gurus’—our mission is tobring up new people and new voices. That’s why we chose a guild as our model—toinclude the novices, journeymen, and masters, and to encourage people at alllevels to step up and share.”

We would like to hear from you. What conversations shouldwe have around this topic? If you have ideas to share, what help or supportwould make those ideas work for you? What else should we at the Guild be talkingabout in our forthcoming 2017 events?

Please send your ideas and additional comments about thiswhite paper to Sharon Vipond, TheeLearning Guild’s director of research.

References

Ashcraft, Catherine, and SarahBlithe. Women in IT: The Facts. NationalCenter for Women & Information Technology, 2010.

Barton, Dominic, SandrineDevillard, and Judith Hazlewood. “Gender equality: Taking stock of where we are.” McKinsey Quarterly. September 2015.

Bono, Joyce E., et al. “Dropped on the Way to the Top: Gender and Managerial Derailment.” Personnel Psychology. 21 October 2016.

Carter, Nancy M., et al. The Bottom Line: Corporate Performance and Women’s Representation on Boards. Catalyst, 2007.

Catalyst. “Employee Experiences Matter: New Catalyst Report Explores Daily Workplace Realities of Inclusion and Exclusion.” 6 October 2016.

Crawford, Janet L. “But I’m Not Sexist—Right?” Cascadance, 2015.

Dirksen, Julie. “Women in the eLearning Field: Beginning a Conversation.” Learning Solutions Magazine. 22 January 2015.

Galinsky, Adam, and MauriceSchweitzer. “It’s good to be the Queen … but it’s easier being the King.” McKinsey Quarterly. October 2015.

Handley, Ian M., et al. “Quality of evidence revealing subtle gender biases in science is in the eye of the beholder.” Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences, Vol. 112, No. 43. October 2015.

Hunt, Vivian, Dennis Layton, andSara Prince. “Why diversity matters.” McKinseyQuarterly. January 2015.

Katz, Judy. “Gender Representation in eLearning.” LearningSolutions Magazine. 22 October 2015.

Kelly, David. “Women in eLearning: Language, Gender Equality, and Leadership.” Learning Solutions Magazine. 21 May2015.

Newton-Small, Jay. Broad Influence: How Women Are Changing theWay America Works. New York, NY: Time Inc. Books, 2016.

Pagano, Koreen. “The Gender Riddle in Learning and Development.” Learning Solutions Magazine. 19 February 2015.

Pressner, Kristen. Are you biased? I am. YouTube video posted by “TEDx Talks.” 30August 2016.

Rimmer, Trina. “The Lack of Diversity in Stock Images Hurts Your eLearning—and What to Do About It.”Learning Solutions Magazine. 17September 2015.

Silva, Christine, Nancy M.Carter, and Anna Beninger. Good Intentions, Imperfect Execution? Women Get Fewer of the “Hot Jobs” Needed to Advance. Catalyst, 2012.

Simard, Caroline, et al. Climbing the Technical Ladder: Obstacles and Solutions for Mid-Level Women in Technology. Anita Borg Institute withStanford University Michelle R. Clayman Institute, 2013.