Women Don’t Always Get the Candid Feedback They Deserve
Multiple studies reveal a mismatch between female employees’ numerical ratings and verbal critiques.
Insincere praise doesn’t help anyone.
Image: SDI Productions/E+
The good news is that we live in a time when many managers would like to avoid coming across as sexist — particularly during performance review season. The bad news is that the evidence suggests bosses aren’t quite sure how to give women the same kind of candid feedback they give to men.
Instead, fear of appearing biased seems to be prompting managers to handle women with “velvet gloves,” according to a recent study in the Journal of Business and Psychology. The authors of that study call this “protective paternalism.” The research, led by Leah Sheppard of Washington State University, used several experiments to show that participants who wanted to avoid looking sexist gave insincere praise to female employees.