Redirect Misdirected Questions, and Other Actions for Allies
Each week, Karen Catlin shares five simple actions to create a more inclusive workplace and be a better ally.
1. Redirect misdirected questions
I frequently come across examples of “misdirected questions.” It’s when someone addresses their question to a man in the room instead of asking the most qualified person, who happens to be a woman or a member of another underrepresented group. Here are some:
- An IT project manager for a construction company often sees the guys around the table directing their questions to her male colleague. He’s responsible for procurement and can’t provide details about the IT projects underway.
- A woman founder of a company frequently meets with new clients who assume her male colleague is in charge. They look to him when asking questions about the business.
- A male medical resident notices that patients ask him questions versus the attending (more senior) physician, a woman.
There’s research backing this up. In a survey of women working in tech, 84% said they had seen a question directed toward a male colleague when they were the most qualified person in the meeting to answer it. And it’s not just men who are guilty of this because people of all gender identities are taught to assume that men naturally hold more power.
Chances are good that misdirected questions surface in meetings you attend, too. As an ally, redirect the question to the most qualified person. All it takes is a simple “Deepa is the expert on that topic. Let’s hear from her” or “Elizabeth is our founder. She’s the best person to answer your question.”
Or, as Dr. Suraj Pursnani recently recommended, “When entering a patient room, introduce your female attending in the following manner: ‘This is my boss, Dr X, and she is your primary surgeon who will answer any questions you have.’”
Share this action on LinkedIn, like it on Instagram, or retweet it.
2. Create a “language matters” forum
A newsletter subscriber told me they recently recommended scrubbing whitelist/blacklist from their organization’s terminology. It came up because they were developing a software feature that involved whitelisting, where only certain users, internet domains, or other identities are allowed to access a service. A corresponding approach uses blacklisting to filter out items and prevent access.
The underlying assumption, that white is good and black is bad, is something we should avoid. Even though they are industry-standard terms in IT, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t steer ourselves and our colleagues away from them and to more inclusive (and perhaps even more descriptive) alternatives. For example, allowlisting and blocklisting.
(Unfortunately, other non-inclusive terms are also widely adopted across tech. For example, people might use “master/slave” to describe storage backup systems. Now for some good news: many have started using different terms, such as “primary/replica.”)
To continue learning about using more inclusive language in your workplace, consider making a “language matters” channel on your corporate Slack or another discussion tool. Healthcare tech company Nuna created such a channel for coworkers to ask questions about language and suggest alternatives. The company also uses it to discuss effective ways to point out when someone uses problematic language and for staff to learn how to respond when called out for their own language choices.
3. Leave guide dogs alone
Last week, I noticed this viral tweet from Dr. Amy Kavanagh, a blind activist and historian in the U.K.:
I was booking my next appointment at the dentist & 2 members of staff kept calling over @GuideDogAva. Until the receptionist told them to stop. The receptionist said “I worked at @waitrose & they always trained us to leave guide dogs alone”
Disability equality training matters.
As the Guide Dog Foundation explains, “Please don’t touch, talk, feed or otherwise distract the [guide or service] dog while he is wearing his harness or vest. You should allow the dog to concentrate and perform for the safety of his handler.”
So noted.
4. Look for negotiation discrepancy
A new report from Pew Research Center examined workers in the U.S. who asked for higher pay when being offered a job. Here’s one interesting data point from their survey: women’s requests for more compensation were more often declined than men’s (38% vs. 31%).
Be aware of this discrepancy if you are a hiring manager or a recruiter. And consider creating a framework or rubric for determining how you will respond to pay negotiation requests to help remove bias from the decision.
(Thank you to Amy Diehl, Ph.D., who shared this research on Twitter.)
5. Say no to #wanels and #manels
In the not-so-distant past, some clever person coined the term “manel” to describe a panel of speakers consisting of only men. An event that subconsciously reinforces that men are the experts; that women don’t belong. And then there are “wanels” — panels that feature all-white speakers.
As someone who has helped organize panels and meetups, I can see how easy it is to select a homogeneous group. Most of us reach out to our network to find people who can speak on the topic. If we lack diversity in our network (which most people do), chances are we will lack diversity in the speaker lineup.
For better allies who speak in public, here’s a pro-tip: Add “Won’t speak on all-male panels” or “Won’t speak on all-white panels” to your social media profiles. I’ve done the latter myself, and I always ask organizers about the diversity of their speaker lineup.
Well, except when I don’t. 😳
Recently, I was asked to give a keynote for a webinar that would also feature other speakers. When I received the invitation, I did not ask who the other speakers would be. I didn’t ask if there would be any diversity on the virtual stage. I simply forgot to check.
Then, when I saw a flyer for the event posted on social media, I cringed. While there was gender diversity in the speaker lineup, we all looked white. I’ve since contacted the organizer, and she confirmed that the panel won’t have any other diverse representation beyond gender.
Because I made a commitment to deliver my talk, I will still do so. Yet, to be a better ally moving forward, I offered to help connect the organizer to speakers from underrepresented racial groups for future events.
That’s all for this week. I wish you strength and safety as we all move forward.
— Karen Catlin (she/her), Author of Better Allies® and Belonging in Healthcare
Copyright © 2023 Karen Catlin. All rights reserved.
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