#BreakTheBias and your silence: International Women's Day 2022

Genders aren’t equal (and gender’s a construct any way but that’s a whole different blog). Even now, in March 2022, women cannot access the same resources, respect, or privileges available to men and it’s profoundly impacting our ability to thrive.

Hell of a way to start a blog, I guess, but I’ll stand by it. In many ways, the bias that exists against women is twofold: it is learned as much as it’s unconscious. Each of these is equally damaging and it is my hope that I can support you in navigating your own learned and innate knowledge of the bias that still exists against women today. Together, we can break that bias.

What’s unconscious bias? 

If a bias is an inclination against someone based on held beliefs, an unconscious bias takes the next step in that journey. When you are unconsciously biased, your mind is made up before you register the thought you have. Your bias exists in the fabric of your thought development. 

There are many types of unconscious bias and they play out in a variety of scenarios but they all have one thing in common: they ain’t doing anybody any favors! An unconscious bias is the root of prejudice disguised as a gut instinct. Whether you’re reacting to someone’s age, their outfit, or the color of their skin, that’s your unconscious bias speaking when you make a surface-level negative judgment. 

Well, that sounds awful. 

Yeah, I hear you. It is pretty awful to make a determination about an entire group of folx on the information you think you have because of a bias. The thing is, we all do it and we have all done it. Even as women, we formulate bias against other women or other folx who do not deserve whatever ideas we are attaching to their femme demeanor. It is awful to be dismissed for the identity you show up in the world wearing so proudly. 

‘Cause, that’s the thing for me here. I’m proud as hell to be a woman, but I am not interested in supporting or excusing the bias that doing so creates. You deserve to live in a world where you are empowered to reach that potential instead of being torn down before you can identify it. Unfortunately, that’s not the truth for most women. In a world where damn near everybody is against you (maybe even you), how can you possibly live up to your full potential? 

With two statistics, I’d like to paint a picture for you about the state of being a woman in the world today: 

Almost 90% of the global population shows some bias against women. 

42% of women have been discriminated against in academics and the workplace.

For Black women, these figures are just the start. It doesn’t get better from there. There is even a rich history of Black women being marginalized by other women, other feminist groups (this is a whole other blog as well)! So what do we do? Where do we go from here? It’s not a world we want to live in when women are being iced out of their own incredible capability simply for existing.

We can break the bias by speaking up 

When it feels counterintuitive, that’s when it’s time to speak up. You don’t have to shout (but you can…), and there’s no obligation to speak up every time, to everyone that shows a bias that creates a barrier in the life of yourself or other women. Whisper if you have to, but let that person know their judgment call was shitty when you feel safe enough to do so. If you feel yourself slipping into a territory of bias that disempowers you to reach your full potential, challenge yourself to rise to the potential you can reach and move beyond it into the greatest space you can take up. 

Bias may be implicit (but is often explicit), and it may be everywhere, but it’s not foolproof and we are certainly not fools. Use your voice to actively and consistently rewrite your internal conversation about the bias you hold so that expectation begins to filter into the narrative of the relationships around you. 

Empowerment everywhere we are 

Talking about bias—even if it’s not against bias—can empower an education mindset. Call your attention (and the attention of those around you) to the negative judgments you make when you feel them creep up. Use your voice and accountability to create an environment where you don’t feel you’re hiding from the bias you’re subjected to. 

Instead, empower yourself to take ownership of the space you want to take up in the world by first challenging the spaces you’re denied it. The most empowering thing you can do to write the bias out of your own life is to create space in your narrative to tell a story in which you are the main character. Maybe that means you’ve gotta throw in a villain arc to get this bias bullshit off the page and reach your full potential. 

You aren’t responsible for rewriting the narrative of every person that holds a bias against you or the rest of the phenomenal women in this world. But, if you can break your own bias to empower your narrative, you’ll have made this world a better place. 

And do you know what? You can. 

I believe in you.