Culture at Work: Jessica Bennett
A chat with the hilarious New York Times correspondent on navigating gender in the workplace and making things better together.
For Contently’s third Culture at Work talk, we were joined by Jessica Bennett, award-winning journalist and critic for The New York Times, as well as the co-founder and curator of the Lean In Collection, a partnership between LeanIn.org and Getty aimed at changing how women are depicted in stock photography.
In her sit-down with our co-founder Shane Snow, Jess touched on topics in her recent hit book, Feminist Fight Club, ranging from why weakening our language doesn’t strengthen anyone to methods of counteracting internal biases. Check out the highlights of the Q&A below, or watch a recording of the full talk here:
Why does it matter?
While there are a few reasons this matters for everyone, Jessica’s go-to reason ties back to the business. “Companies with women on the board are more profitable and collaborative,” she said.
Moreover, helping anyone, underrepresented or not, has a positive effect on the company. Jessica paraphrased organizational psychologist Adam Grant by adding that when everyone is generous at work, we all succeed.
But it isn’t only the “why” that’s important. How we talk about gender in the workplace is important too. Shane asked about feminism’s perceived “combativeness” and why she titled the book Feminist Fight Club. She clarified that the real-life Feminist Fight Club fights only the patriarchy, not each other, and that the book is meant to be tongue-in-cheek. “Humor is an incredibly effective tool to broach these topics with. No one wants to feel like they’re in the wrong,” she said, and humor can help ease the tension.
Still, she said, “Maybe it’s time for a fight. I’ve been a journalist for 10 years and have been focusing on gender issues for five years, and one of my biggest frustrations is this softening of language. It’s like we have to use really nice language that doesn’t effect change.”
What do we get wrong?
It’s important to begin with one significant disclaimer: You can inadvertently perpetuate bias and still be a good person. Jessica reassured, “Young people believe in and want diversity, but it’s harder in practice.” She told a story about a time when she mistakenly assumed that a woman, who had walked into a room along with two men, was one of the their secretaries.
Furthermore, some of Jessica’s core assumptions while researching and writing this book were that sexism and racism exist in all workplaces and everyone can be a little sexist and/or racist. This belief got her booted from Amazon, but Jessica emphasized that we’re hardwired to default to take shortcuts, which can take the form of stereotypes. However, changing these associations or shortcuts isn’t impossible and starts with acknowledging your biases.
What should we do?
Being aware is only half of the battle, and being supportive of others is a huge component. If you notice someone getting cut off or interrupted at a meeting, speak up! In some cases, having a third person intervene (in a friendly and non-threatening way) can help ease the tension.
Being an ally helps cut across gender lines, too. “Men are crucial to the battle; men still run the game and we need them to be allies,” Jessica said.
As far as driving change in the workplace, Jessica sees the managers, executives, and other leaders within the company at the wheel because they have access to data and power that their subordinates might not have. While speaking throughout Silicon Valley, Jessica found that some execs were driving change by critically looking towards their own departments. A few ran mini-wage gap experiments by breaking down salaries across race or gender, and seeing if an internal gap is present.
Jessica also added that this isn’t a one-and-done process, and Shane pointed out that even incredibly diverse groups tend to homogenize after a while. That’s why being deliberate and overt about achieving racial parity within the general population is so essential: “It’s easy to say, ‘Well, I’m fighting for the cause,’” Jessica said, “but it’s also easy to make sure that the resumes we look at resemble the general population.”
Resources for continuing the conversation
- Project Implicit: A quiz aimed at identifying and understanding implicit biases that lie outside of our consciousness or control.
- AOL Build Series: An interview with Jessica as a part of the AOL Build Series.
- The Infuriating Cancellation of Good Girls Revolt: Get the low-down on the Good Girls Revolt series that was cancelled after only one season on Amazon.
- ‘Women in Revolt’: A Newsweek Cover and Lawsuit Collide: In honor of the Amazon series premiere, Newsweek reissued a past cover story that coincided with the women’s lawsuit.
