Unveiling the Challenges: Exploring Barriers to Women's Empowerment and Leadership

Biases And Stereotypes

Although biases and stereotypes are related, they are distinct in that one’s biases or assumptions can lead to generalizations or stereotypes. In a bidirectional fashion, these stereotypes can also lead to biases. Biases₂ are defined as “tendencies to favor or dislike a person or thing, especially as a result of a preconceived opinion” (Oxford University Press, n.d.). These biases can be created by an individual’s background, culture, or personal experiences within a said group. Biases can be either implicit or explicit in nature, differentiated by the level of consciousness to both the presence and influence of preconceived notions of a group of people. Implicit biases₃ are those unconscious or unknown to the individual and entail their own challenges in addressing, specifically the lack of awareness of the presence of these biases and the subsequent harm they may cause to individuals within those groups. One may tend to gravitate toward a particular group, and when engaging in this bias, one may start to define these groups by overarching traits via stereotyping. Stereotypes₄ are defined as “a set of beliefs about the characteristics of a social group or category, where members of that category are assumed to have certain characteristics, based on membership of that group” (King, 2021). They are comprised of generalizations about a particular group of individuals, and although may be true for one individual, these labels and assumptions are not valid for the rest. Stereotyping may also lead to biases in that believing certain traits or aspects about a particular group can shape an individual’s tendencies or actions towards that group or individuals within that group. In this chapter, we will focus on the biases and stereotypes geared towards women and the continual impact they have on women’s advancement in leadership.