According to a report from the U.S. Department of Commerce, less than 25% of the positions in STEM fields are held by women. As much as we loathe to admit it, women sometimes find it more difficult to enter an engineering or technology field than a man. But the sexism doesn’t end once they’d made their way into their careers.

The subtle sexism in the workplace goes as far as expecting women to complete the “office housework” such as answering the phone, taking notes and training younger employees. These traditional tasks that females are expected to do are not a part of the employee’s immediate job description and are the tasks in which volunteers are asked for.

This is a sad reality for women in the workforce; statistics show that they will help more, but reap fewer benefits. Traditional gender stereotypes dictate that women are supposed to be more helpful and nurturing than men, who are expected to be more ambitious and driven.

Therefore, when a woman offers to bake cupcakes for the office party or help train new employees, it is considered to be ordinary and part of her inherent nature. Unfortunately, this hurts a woman’s chance at success in her career.

Psychologists Madeline Heilman and Julie Chen conducted a study together with the New York University in which they predicted that “performance of altruistic citizenship behavior in a work setting would enhance the favorability of men’s (but not women’s) evaluations and recommendations…”

Unfortunately for women, their hypothesis was proven correct.

“Work-related altruism is thought to be less optional for women than for men,” according to the study, “these results suggest that gender-stereotypic prescriptions regarding how men and women should behave result in different evaluative reactions to the same altruistic behavior, depending on the performer’s sex.”

These expectations lead to stereotypes. When we tell women that they will only be as likeable as a man if they work harder, we give the impression that they are not as necessary in the work force.

This is a scientifically-proven, yet ridiculous assumption.

Two students at MIT performed an experiment meant to analyze factors that contribute to running a successful team or business group. It was shown that teams with more women outscored those with fewer. Women bring to the table new knowledge and skills, as well as a different perspective, both of which boost what is called the group’s ‘collective intelligence.’

But why is this? Why are women considered the ‘secretaries’ of the workforce even when it’s been proven that they bring higher rates of success?

 
Gender stereotypes are reinforced at a very young age, typically around the age of three. It begins when we assign the color pink to girls and blue to boys. We continue with separating the toy aisles according to ‘boy’ toys and ‘girl’ toys. When they enter the public education system, teachers are more strict with girls since boys are “expected to misbehave.”
 
Once again, it comes down to expectations. When we expect a characteristic out of one gender but not the other, we perpetuate gender stereotypes. The easiest way to combat this is to make judgements on people after meeting them and base it off of their personality. Don’t assign toys or colors to children barely old enough to babble.