How I Ended Up in Law School

As an undergrad psych major, I learned about “stereotype threat,” and it blew my mind. The way stereotype threat works is that when people are aware of a negative stereotype about an identity or group they belong to, that awareness itself hinders their performance, even when they know they themselves do not believe the stereotype.

The example I remember so clearly from my college classroom had to do with a pattern of male students consistently scoring higher on math tests than female students. The simple act of telling the students that the test was “gender-fair” (i.e., removing the perceived threat) eliminated the performance gap. Seriously. That’s it. What a beautifully simple strategy to promote fairness.

That lecture ended up pushing my 20 year old self toward law school, because I saw the potential to build systems that are more fair. Turns out, doing so is not quite as simple as I’d imagined, but my work has stayed consistent: Reducing barriers that unfairly keep capable people from thriving at work.

I see stereotype threat pervasively in leadership. In addition to their actual job responsibilities, women leaders also carry the mental math of how they’ll be perceived (e.g., “too emotional,” “distracted by parenting,” or “lacking executive presence/confidence”).  That extra cognitive load and its potential impact on performance is not a personal failing AT ALL, it’s a natural and predictable human response to a biased environment.

Recently I’ve been supporting women leaders who are overburdened and close to burnout. I’m seeing that the most impactful progress is not achieved by meeting the cultural stereotype of an “executive leader,” but by removing the threat of it, clarifying expectations, and redesigning systems for greater effectiveness and sustainability.

Thank you NYT for the image.