Essay: Gender prejudice in job interviews

In any organisations, the process of hiring employees includes having to interview potential candidates at the preliminary stage. Interviews are usually conducted as a legal commitment for firms to utilise a consistent way to deal with the hiring process. The interview process is conducted in order for organisations to screen through the hundreds if not thousands of candidate applying for a specific job position. Not only that, is also a great way for candidates to get to know and meet the employers of the company.
“Do you have kids?” or “Do you plan on having kids in the near future?” Both of these questions are a subtle form of gender biased interview questions that are often being targeted only towards the female interviewees. Regardless of the existence of the Gender Discrimination Laws, the prejudice against gender still occurs in the workplace.
It is very crucial for interviewers to know what can and cannot be said in an interview as they are the ones that set the pace of the whole evaluation. Not only that, interviewers should always be mindful and act accordingly to the policies that has been construed by the government as well as the standards that are appropriate with the organisation as it reflects the business as a whole. This is why it is very crucial for the interviewer to know the boundaries and limitations of interviewing the organisation’s potential candidate.
Quoting the words of the senior career advisor of CareerBuilder, Michael Erwin himself, “So many people have a hand in hiring these days you may want to sit down with human resources,” This proves that the organisation’s management, or specifically, the human resource managers play a vital role in ensuring that the interviewers conducting the interviews are up-to-date with the recent policies and guidelines of acceptable questions that can be asked.
For instance, it is not acceptable to ask candidates if they are married or if they plan on getting married due to the fact that it could be misunderstood as a means of discrimination based on their answer (Gibson K., 2015). As a human resource manager it is very important to be knowledgeable when it comes to workplace policies as it keeps the organisation from having a tarnished reputation as well as a lawsuit.
In a research conducted by Ellen Pao & KPCB, a shocking 70 percent of the 200 senior -level women in tech industry admitted that they have been through bias interviews questions. Some of the questions include questioning the intention of the female candidate on whether she would run away from the organisation once she has a baby.  Some candidates were even asked about their religion as well as their perspective on abortion which is completely irrelevant with the scope of the interview.
Questions like these proves the prejudicial views in business-ventures exists. Undoubtedly, these questions are almost never asked to the male candidates (Peck E., 2016). Not only are they irrelevant in the assessment of the potentials and qualifications that the candidate possess but it is also disturbingly sexist and borderline illegal. Questioning the female candidates in regards to their marital status, plans on having kids or their child-care arrangements just shows how old-fashioned and close-minded some people are.
Asking about who will be babysitting the kids to female candidates with children are proven as another encounter that is laced with sexism during a job interview (Kramer J., 2017). It could be unintentional but in this current and globalised era where female empowering movement exists, it would sound rather sheepish for interviewers to pest on unnecessary remarks. With that being said, more women are joining the labour forces as there are a variety of baby-sitting options. Even the statistics of the stay-at-home dads have tripled since 1997 and this proves that the male population are now being more acceptable to being the househusbands.
The concern remains as to why employers favour male candidates? What makes women an easier target of discrimination when it comes to hiring decisions? Beyond the shadow of a doubt, both male and female could still be the victim of gender bias in interview questions but it is proven that females have it more difficult in dealing with the repercussions of prejudice during interviews.
A research conducted shed some light in regards to the matter proving that employers favour men because of the perception that men perform better on average when it comes to certain task (Coffman, Katherine B., Christine L. Exley, and Muriel Niederle., 2017). The study shows that the root of prejudice comes from the perspective of the differences in abilities or skills when it comes to the different gender. Organisations prefer male candidates simply because they think male candidates are more probable in maximising the organisation’s profits.
Aside from that, the reasoning that can be concluded from this research would also be due to the fact that organisation’s tend to have higher preference for a masculine style of leadership as it is more likely to be enforced. This also subconsciously contributes to the statistic of which men are 1.5 times more probable to be hired against women even when both candidates have the exact same qualifications.
If organisations permits such questions to be asked in an official interview, what more could be said in regards to the culture of the organisation? It could also portray that the sexist questions and presumptions doesn’t just stop at the interview session. The impact of this sexist culture will continue to run deep within the organisation. As a result, the women in the organisation might avoid talking about their families as much as the male employees as they might feel the urge to give the impression of being more professional.
The human resource department plays a crucial role in ensuring a bias-free interview. Some of the methods that can be instilled in combatting the prejudice in the interview process includes conducting bias trainings. Awareness can lead to better judgement thus it is essential for interviewers to go through bias training as well as getting educated in regards to inherent biases and how to overcome the issue. It would be best if participants get a grasp on the preconceived notions that exists around gender as it helps participants to recognise the unconscious bias and allows them to seek answers for detrimental biases.
An additional method to combat gender biases in interviews would include enforcing a consistent scoring system that allows interviewers to stay focuses and alert in seeking the most qualified candidate that will add the most value to the organisation. By staying focused, interviewers would stray less towards other irrelevant aspects of the candidate. The scoring system keeps track on the more vital aspect of the interview by assessing the candidate’s skills rather than focusing on their personal traits like gender, age or ethnicity.
In conclusion, gender prejudice revolving assumptions against women and men exists and will continue to strive if the root cause is not tended. Thus it is very crucial for organisations to carefully look into the problem and recognise the biases as the step to solve any issue would be to address it. This means that being aware of the biased assumption can go a long way in improving the decision making of an organisation