Glass Walls

Looks at six main bias barriers women face at work and how leaders, allies, and women can overcome them.

Gender bias is a powerful but hidden force that holds women back, keeping them from achieving

their full potential and limiting organizations from achieving the creativity, problem solving, and growth

that are possible with a gender diverse workforce.

But you can’t fix what you can’t see—and you can’t solve a complex problem unless you truly

understand and properly define its component parts.

In this revealing new book, Amy Diehl, Ph.D. and Leanne Dzubinski, Ph.D. shine a new light on the

barriers that form the structure of gender bias in the workplace. Through their original research, they

have discovered six core factors, and even more subfactors (some of which they have given name to for

the first time in the gender bias literature). They describe each of the six overarching barriers women

face; illustrate each with real-world examples and stories shared by women in their study; and explain

the consequences of that specific barrier.

To better understand all that causes gender bias, Drs. Diehl and Dzubinski created a survey instrument,

the Gender Bias Scale for Women Leaders, comprised of scale questions derived from the authors’

previous research. Using factor analysis, they discovered underlying themes behind workplace barriers,

revealing the six primary barriers. Next, they conducted qualitative content analysis of women’s stories

from public sources to confirm their six-barrier model and identify the many subcomponents of each.

Their findings and analysis present a new, important, and richly detailed blueprint of gender bias. Based

on their research findings, Drs. Diehl and Dzubinski document, describe, and explain:

• How male privilege results in a workplace built by men and for men

• How women encounter disproportionate constraints in that workplace, expected to play supportive

roles to men.

• The surprising ways in which women have experienced insufficient support, based solely on

gender.

• The concept of devaluation, and its consequences for both the target and the organization.

• How women face overt hostility at work merely by virtue of their gender.

• How the above barriers lead to acquiescence, which occurs when women internalize the obstacles

and adapt to the limitations.