The State of Allyship

A recent survey provides a starting point for industry efforts to promote the advancement of women in the workplace.

Allyship is an important piece of the puzzle when it comes to moving toward gender equality in the workplace, said Lesli Stasiek, senior director, human resources at MWI.

As such, the Women in Leadership and Management in Animal Health (WILMAH) shared the results of a recent survey on the state of Allyship in the animal health industry during a panel discussion at VMX. “We want to create awareness related to unconscious bias and things that might be standing in the way of getting there,” Stasiek said, who is also a WILMAH board member.

The 2023 State of Allyship-In-Action survey was done in partnership with Integrating Women Leaders (IWL). More than 1,400 stakeholders, across multiple industries and including animal health, responded to the national survey over a period of 60 days. The breakdown of respondents was 66% women, 26% men, and 8% non-binary.

WILMAH started its research efforts several years ago with a benchmarking study that examined the quality of female representation across the industry and the pay female employees received. Last year, WILMAH had the opportunity to partner with IWL on a survey across companies and industries. The 2023 survey was able to separate out the animal health industry data.

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure,” Stasiek said. “The survey gave us data to start to ask questions like, are we seeing change? What’s our baseline? Where are we at? Are we making progress? And if we are not, then we hope the survey can serve as a catalyst for change.”

Discrepancies between male and female respondents

Regarding general attitudes toward one’s organization and manager, both men and women responded positively, but there was a noticeable discrepancy between their responses. While the male sample size of animal health respondents was low, the IWL felt confident in sharing the male data because it was directionally the same as the national data.

For instance, 88% of men recommended their organization as a great place to work, while 82% of women responded similarly. Answering the statement “My manager is highly supportive of me,” 96% of men agreed, while 72% of women agreed. Likewise, the statement “My efforts and contributions are recognized and valued” garnered 92% support from men, but 70% from women. The statement, “My organization cares about me as a person,” was supported by 64% of women and 75% of men.

There was a much lower level of agreement on statements such as one’s organization and the industry having: “Great progress in advancing women into leadership roles,” 91% men supported vs. 77% women; “Great progress in advancing other underrepresented groups into leadership roles” 79% of men supported vs. 51% of women.

There may be several factors to the discrepancy, Stasiek said. “I think it centers on awareness, from ensuring that you’re seeing this as an organization, and then measuring leadership representation goals, but also moving your employees along the allyship continuum to enable the action to happen,” she said. “A lot of organizations have environmental, social and governance (ESG) reports, and they’re starting to make that more public and more transparent. But not everybody does.”

Allyship as a continuum

Ultimately, allyship is a journey, Stasiek said. “The goal is obviously to become an advocate, someone who is very vocal and open and driving change, visibly, within an organization,” she said. “But everybody starts somewhere along that continuum, just as they start somewhere along their DEI journey. Everybody is at a different starting point. It’s important to try to identify where are you as a starting point.”

The survey provided a chart of an allyship continuum for respondents to study. “The Allyship continuum sets that baseline of where an organization is and gives them something to strive for,” said Stasiek.

• On one end of the continuum is Anti. You actively work against women in the workplace, degrading and devaluing female colleagues on a regular basis.
• Ambivalent is the next stage. You may not realize you are hindering equality in the workplace, and may even be indifferent to the concept of allyship.
• Next is awareness. You express some interest and/or desire to engage women in the workplace, and are in the process of learning and observing.
• Active is the fourth step. You are well-informed and willing to engage women, and as a supporter are observing, sharing and learning to influence others.
• Advocate is the desired destination of the continuum. You are visible in supporting women and encouraging others to do the same; they make intentional choices to advance women in the workplace.

The survey provided several examples of ways that one could act in the practice of allyship. These included men giving credit to women for their ideas and contributions, men mentoring or sponsoring women, men advocating for women to be promoted, requiring diverse slates of candidates for open positions, and men advocating for women even when women aren’t in the room.

The survey also illustrated ways in which gender bias can play out in the workplace. There is the “Likeability or Tightrope” bias of women being judged for being too nice or too tough. The “Performance/Prove It Again” bias is when women have their expertise questioned more than men. An “Affinity” bias exists when people gravitate toward someone who looks and thinks like them. The “Maternal/Paternal” bias relates to a new parent being judged as less committed than her (or his) co-workers. Finally, the “Attribution” bias is when women are viewed as less competent than men, given less credit and recognition for accomplishments and more blame for mistakes.

Awareness and continuing education are the first steps in creating more practices of allyship in organizations and the industry at large. “Most organizations have done training on unconscious bias, which is great foundationally,” said Stasiek. “But I see allyship as the next step in the journey to actually taking action.”

It’s the same as if you took training on negotiation but never ever actually used that training to negotiate a contract, she said. “That’s what I see allyship doing because there are actual things that showed up in the data. There are actual practices of allyship that people can do daily to change the culture. Change happens when allyship and the practice of it starts to be embedded into the fabric of cultures and organizations.”

Microaggressions

Microaggressions in the workplace were also covered in the survey. According to the definition given in the survey, microaggressions are subtle, often unconscious messages that devalue, discourage and impair workplace performance.

Microaggressions are often unintentional and subtle. They can be unconscious messages where one individually doesn’t mean anything by them, but when you experience them over time, repeatedly, it’s like “death by a thousand paper cuts.”

The survey asked two questions: “Based on your own experience or what you have observed, how often do you believe these things happen to women within your organization?” and “How often do you believe these things happened to you within the past year?”

The survey listed 14 microaggressions overall. The five most prevalent were:

• Being interrupted or spoken over more often than others. (23% of women responded they believe this happens in their organization, and 19% said it has happened to them in the last year.)
• Having their judgment questioned in their area of expertise. (23% of women responded they believe this happens in their organization, and 17% said it has happened to them in the last year.)
• Not being given credit for contributions made. (23% of women responded they believe this happens in their organization, and 13% said it has happened to them in the last year.)
• Being asked to do the “office work,” such as schedule meetings or take notes. (20% of women responded they believe this happens in their organization, and 20% said it has happened to them in the last year.)
• Being overlooked for a promotion or stretch assignment. (19% of women responded they believe this happens in their organization, and 23% said it has happened to them in the last year.)

In the individual responses to examples of microaggressions, one respondent shared that within her organization, an EVP regularly scheduled 1:1 calls with men on their leadership team but had not done so with the women leaders on the team. “While it may not be intentional, it can be perceived as though he is valuing the men’s input more than the women,” the respondent wrote. “This is also contrary to his key initiatives to increase diversity in hiring processes.”

Another respondent shared that a female co-worker in a senior leadership position was told she was being too outspoken regarding interactions with the FDA, and following the meeting was excluded from further communications regarding the topic.

Women of color experience an additional layer of microaggression, according to the survey. Across multiple industries, 46% of women of color respondents said they believe women are being dismissed in their organization because they were viewed as too new or inexperienced, vs. 22% of white respondents. Twenty-three percent said they had experienced it themselves within the last year. Twenty-nine percent of respondents who identified themselves as women of color believed that women had experienced a coworker expressing surprise at their language skills, and 27% noted they had experienced this personally. The general attitudes and feelings of support from one’s organization were also lower for women of color.

WILMAH wants to raise awareness of the incidents so leaders can recognize when women leaders are being valued in their area of expertise than male counterparts who aren’t being questioned about their opinion in the same meeting. “It just brings to light the things that happen on a daily basis, and that’s where people can stand up and be allies and do something different,” Stasiek said.

Biases weren’t exclusive to gender differences. The survey results also revealed that women respondents admitted they are not advocating for other women. “Women are human too, and we have biases, just like men,” Stasiek said. “Women have grown up with certain ways of working, surviving and navigating an organization just the same as men. We have our own biases. A primary reason for women not supporting other women is just their own biases – they don’t realize they’re doing it, just like men. So, awareness is the first building block.”

Stasiek said another reason is that many women believe other women must figure it out for themselves. The thinking goes: “They have to go through the challenges and experiences just like I did.” Stasiek said she wishes that were different, but that’s what the data showed. “A lot of the path forward looks the same for both genders.”

Ultimately, the survey was conducted with the intent of providing data to use for action. “We’re all human, and we all act and behave in ways that are deeply rooted within us. That’s what makes change so hard, and it’s why we have to be intentional.”

It involves a balance between what we’re doing as individuals, and the accountability we’re holding to ourselves in the little things that we do on a daily basis, with the grander, bigger commitments we can make as an industry. “I hope this is a catalyst for people to stop, pause, think and reflect, both individually and as companies,” Stasiek said. “Then we can begin to put systems and processes in place that will truly change the culture of our industry. Nobody can do this alone. We need to do this collectively.”

Defining Allyship

“Allyship is about people taking actions to support, amplify, and advocate for others, especially for others who don’t belong
to the same societal group or have the same level of privilege or influence.”

Source: IWL-WILMAH survey

Survey responses

There was a difference in responses between the genders when asked whether they see men acting as allies for women in their organization differently – at all levels.

Lesli Stasiek

Senior director, human resources at MWI

Photo credit: istockphoto.com/jacoblund