WOMEN IN TECH THE FACTS

Overcompensation: Another Type of Gender
or Color-Invisibility
“It’s really not about gender; it’s just about talent and/or how hard you work.
Most of my best employees are women!”
MERIT
This claim, or versions of it, is a common response to diversity efforts.
However, it signals several potential problems:
• Reiterates the myth of meritocracy. Research shows that it isn’t
JUST about talent or how hard you work.
• It ignores the biased systems that implicitly create barriers.
• Even though the last part is phrased positively in this example, it can come across as
disingenuous or attempting to “overcompensate.”
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
It is important to remember that, more often that not, these biases are not the result of any ill
intentions. The goal, therefore, is not to find fault or assign blame; this is not about fixing people, but
rather it is about recognizing and interrupting these biases, thereby fixing the environment. For more
information on how to address these biases, see NCWIT’s Supervising-in-a-Box series, available at
www.ncwit.org/supervising.
Interested in testing your own biases?
Check out the Implicit Association Test at www.projectimplicit.net
26 WOMEN IN TECH: THE FACTS NCWIT // ncwit.org