Off The Record #11: That’s a woman’s job… but, is it though?
A look at discrimination in task delegation in the workplace.
by Lornah Wahome, Sami Horn, David Wunschel, Debrah Opiyo, Joseph Kimani and Salome Njambi
Discrimination in the workplace is not a new topic — unless of course you are a bot and have not had a chance to form human connections. Globally, men and women have, at some point in their lives, been treated unfairly because of their gender, age, religious views, sexual orientation or political views. For women in particular, gender inequalities are rife and often experienced through differences in work allocation, pay, access to training opportunities, promotions and much more. Societal attitudes and cultural beliefs around gender roles and norms continue to fuel stereotypes and widen the gaps between men and women — particularly in the workplace.
This Off The Record edition, explores the inequalities that Kenyan women face in regards to task delegation in the workplace. It is not uncommon to hear of managers allocating tasks unfairly between their male and female colleagues. We take a look at how gender affects delegation decisions. Are decisions driven by stereotypes? What beliefs shape delegation decisions? Are people aware of how gender affects the choices they make? If you have answered yes or no to any of these questions, hold off as we delve into whether this is the case.
What did we do?
To better understand how gender affects delegation decisions, we asked a group of 100 participants from the University of Nairobi to take on the role of a task delegator in a hypothetical delegation task. Each of the 100 participants were presented with a set of employee profiles for three individuals placed in groups of either MFM (Male-Female-Male) or FMF (Female-Male-Female). The order in which participants saw the profiles was randomized. Each individual’s profile pack contained information such as employee name, education level and work experience. (eg. Mary has a bachelor’s degree and 2 years of work experience)
Participants were presented with 5 tasks. 2 tasks considered predominantly male — switching a light bulb and making a financial budget. 2 tasks viewed as predominantly female — making tea and coffee, and organizing a team meeting. Lastly, 1 gender neutral task — writing an office document. For each task, participants were asked to delegate the tasks to the individuals listed in the MFM and FMF employee profile groups. Finally, focus group discussions were used to unpack participant’s experiences and views on discrimination in task delegation and assignments in the Kenyan workplace.
Our results:
- Tasks were delegated with gender in mind.
Results from the study show that slightly more than half (55%) of tasks were delegated to women but just as we hypothesized, participants delegated tasks in a very gendered way. This was especially true for the non-work related tasks such as making tea/coffee and changing a light bulb. As expected, we found that women were more likely to be asked to make tea while men were more likely to be asked to change a light bulb. Interestingly, there was no difference in office based tasks, such as organising a meeting or creating an office document. With ‘delegated to a woman’ as the dependent variable, we saw the difference in likelihood to delegate to a woman in the below plot, results are significant if the bar doesn’t cross the 0 line.
2. Gender stereotypes are evident.
When asked about the factors that contributed to their decision while delegating tasks, most participants said that gender played the biggest role in their delegation choices. 16% said they delegated more tasks to men and 22% said they delegated more tasks to women. The follow-up survey gave us more insights into evidence of gender stereotypes and how it impacts delegation decisions. For example, when one respondent was asked the reason why they would delegate certain tasks to men they simply said,
“I felt like more of the tasks listed above would be better done by men because men have more abilities”.
On the other hand, one respondent said that they would delegate more tasks to women because they are viewed as being hardworking and detail oriented. As the respondent put it, “Women are hardworking and organized. Women are also naturally able to handle so many things carefully and with ease”.
3. Discrimination and the lack of fairness still exists.
Although we had clear evidence of stereotyping and discrimination in task delegation, we gained insights into what respondents thought about fairness in their current workplace, from the follow up qualitative study. 80% of participants thought that managers don’t delegate fairly in the workplace between men and women. As some respondents put it,
- “Most mangers are men and they like taking advantage of women or look down on women”
- “In many offices women are given lighter duties because they believe women are weak.”
- “Men are seen to be more flexible and not emotional unlike women.”
When it comes to discrimination in the workplace we saw very high rates of expected gender discrimination in the responses that we received. 70% of women felt strongly that women are discriminated against when it comes to task delegation as compared to 50% (which is also high) of men who felt the same way. These results align with some of the themes that stemmed out of the brief qualitative study that we conducted. As one female respondent said based off her experience with discrimination, “I work in a community and I have a CBO. Last October, I was kicked out of a meeting because I am a woman, I am young, and I don’t have a kid therefore I am not a member of the community.”
So What?
Women in Kenya still face discrimination in their day-to-day lives — especially at work. Although this study was conducted with a small sample size, evidence shows that there is still discrimination in how tasks are allocated between men and women in the workplace. Stereotypes and gender norms continue to create a divide in how managers and supervisors delegate tasks across their employees. Strong gender policies should be instilled in each organization to protect workers from all forms of discrimination. In environments that are deeply rooted in cultural norms and beliefs, employees should be sensitized to speak and act against any discrimination that occurs in the workplace.
So, the next time you think that a task is better suited to any individual because of a reason other than their qualification, take a moment and question, is it though?
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