On The ‘Old Boys’ Club’ And Gender Sensitization for Peer Groups

Written by: Aahil Sheikh

Workplaces are as social a space as they are professional, and past gender sensitization of people often paves way for age-old stereotypes to dictate office norms and rules. You’ve probably heard of the ‘Old Boys’ Club’ in your office workspace, and depending on your gender, been either a part of it or excluded from it. But this phenomenon doesn’t just occur in isolation; it is the result of years of socialization and conditioning.

Once it becomes a mainstay of office culture, it can severely impact productivity and inclusion. Gender isn’t the only social identity that is affected, religion, caste, region, age are some of the other factors that impact experiences at work. For this article, the focus will remain on gender sensitization and how it finds its way into peer group and impact people’s experiences at work.

What Are Peer Groups?

Peer groups are an important part of a person’s social and professional life. From a very young age, peer groups enforce and reinforce gendered work roles. We’re raised to believe that boys can only play with cars, and they shouldn’t cry when it hurts, and girls can only play with dolls and are meant to be more caring and nurturing.

If a boy signs up for dance classes, he’ll be treated as ‘girly’ by other boys who sign up for karate classes. Similarly, if a girl signs up for karate classes, she’ll be treated as ‘tomboy-ish’ by the other girls. These rules are further solidified in groups. Deviating from these norms will most likely result in backlash from the group members. This selective socialization can have larger ramifications in terms of group dynamics and interaction with the other gender.

How Do Peer Groups Impact Gender Sensitization in Work Spaces?

Peer groups remain a pivotal part of a person’s professional life. When gender segregation is not mitigated during childhood and teenage years, it greatly affects the quality of interaction between genders. This lapse can result in ineffective communication between colleagues.

When one has been brought up in a closed setting, unaware of what the other gender feels or goes through, there’s an incapacity to understand or empathize with them. Such gendered learnings and experiences reflect in how people behave at the workplace too.

The ‘Old Boys’ Club’ And How It Affects Gender Sensitization

The ‘Old Boys’ Club’ refers to a hypothesis which states that men have an easier time networking with more powerful men in ways that are less accessible to women. The gendered work divisions we’ve discussed above contribute to the creation of this Club, as men feel comfortable fraternizing with one another.

This fraternizing grows into networking if senior members of a company are a part of the same group. This networking leads to bonding between employer and employees, helping their chances for more support and growth at work, including promotions.

Peer group socialization in this instance excludes women in multiple ways. For example, going out for drinks is a common choice for recreation post-work in many organizations. It serves as a backdrop for young men to learn from their senior mentors.

At the root of it, both groups feel uncomfortable with the other gender, something referred to as ‘Gender Blindspots’ by John Gray and Barbara Annis in their book “Work with Me: The 8 Blind Spots Between Men and Women in Business.”

The idea of Gender Blindspot reflects how different genders are socially conditioned in such a way that they never learn how the ‘other side’ thinks and what informs their behavior. Eighty-one per cent of women have reported being excluded from social gatherings after work as they are not invited.

Gray and Annis believe that continued segregation and a lack of gender sensitization has robbed both men and women a perspective to understand how the other thinks. When female mentorship becomes difficult (due to a lack of female senior partners at a firm), women are robbed of professional growth.

Men are often unaware of how to interact with women in professional settings which is why it’s important that companies conduct gender sensitization workshops with the workforce. It’s important to develop an inclusion policy that’s gender sensitive and eases employees into inculcating better behavior.

Who Made The Rules Of Engagement of Gendered Work?

For once, let’s assume men do invite women for informal-yet-career-making activities outside of working hours. Are circumstances enabling enough for them to participate? Gender roles prohibit women from fraternizing after work, as they may have to switch to performing their caregiving tasks. This is referred to as the concept of ‘Double Burden‘, effectively giving women two jobs, one paid and one unpaid, and both are often, thankless.

While talking about promotions and office spaces, it’s also important to understand the systemic structures that prohibit women from moving up. Upper management is occupied by mostly men who exist in a system designed by other men from decades ago.

On page 18 of ‘Work With Me: The 8 Blind Spots Between Men and Women’ this excerpt explains a great deal on gendered peer group patterns and behavior,

“Men are, by and large, very comfortable in this environment and generally don’t see any need for change. It’s often uncomfortable for women who have little choice but to adapt to the male style of work. Men didn’t intentionally plan this as a way of keeping women out. It’s just that when the corporate structure was developed generations ago, the majority of the workforce was men. As a result, men have written the basic rules of engagement in business and made them more effective and efficient over the years—from leading teams, to conducting meetings, to prioritizing issues, to making decisions. Even how and where to socialize after work—from golf outings to gentlemen’s clubs—is based on men’s preferences.”

Affirmative Action policies such as quotas for women are met with criticism, raising questions about ‘merit’ and ‘worthiness’, not realizing that men getting promoted are also not on merit but also comes from their relative social privilege. All of this ties back to peer group socialization inhibiting groups from learning more about each other.

How To Do Better with Gender Sensitization 

The D&I Leads should ensure that the work environment is conducive for all genders to interact with each other in a manner that’s both respectful and professional. PoSH awareness activities can be directed at educating men about sexism at the gendered workplaces and how they can address subconscious behavioral patterns to address and alter their interactions with women. Gender sensitization workshops must be focused upon.

Seventy-nine percent of men feel they have to be careful and indirect when providing women critical feedback, and 82 percent of women say they want to receive direct feedback from men (Gender Surveys, Barbara Annis & Associates, 2005–2012). With clear guidelines on how to converse, past conditioning of treating the other gender as ‘alien’ can be remedied. There is evidence that the finance sector greatly benefits from decreased systemic risk, typically promoted by masculinity-driven behavior motivated in sex-segregated environments.

Ungender-ing Gendered Work 

We’ve examined how our upbringing can have a major impact on the biases we all harbor. Our stereotypes about the other gender, other communities, can lead us down a path of re-enacting exclusionary practices in the workplace giving rise to gendered work divisions. For example, women are thought to be ‘overly emotional’, and hence unfit for positions in the senior management. Men in senior positions, who have such opinions, need to introspect and get rid of their biases.

Self-assessment is a long and arduous task, and thus a capable HR body can go a long way in gender sensitization within firms. If you’re someone who has started on the path of unlearning and relearning and is unsure of what is and what isn’t appropriate, change the way you communicate.

Instead of asking someone outright if they’re offended, mold your question in such a way that it comes off as a statement, like ‘I’m not entirely sure if this was okay to say, please let me know what I can do to know more/think better.’ This establishes your lack of knowledge and also requests for better insights. The statement will help create a space where your colleagues might feel safer, and educate you on where the line between appropriate and inappropriate is drawn.

Ending The ‘Old Boys’ Club’

If inclusion is what drives a company, they won’t possibly be able to do any justice to its diverse workforce, if the senior management is made up of upper-caste/class men or represents only one single, dominant, demographic marker. The inclusion of women in leadership is one of the best ways to address the ‘Old Boys’ Club’, combat preconceived gender notions, make the workplace safer, and ensure diversity thrives. Having more women in decision-making roles will invariably have a positive impact on how peer groups operate at the workplace.

Various other methods, such as on-site childcare facilities and flexible time and job-sharing can go a long way for making workspaces more inclusive for women, thereby, making it possible for women to participate in more work-related activities. Women in senior management can herald the end of the ‘Old Boys’ Club’, as they’ll open up avenues for young women to network and informally socialize as well.

About the author: Aahil is a second year student of political science at Delhi University. He’s interested in politics and pop culture and everything in between.

Ungender Insights is the product of our learning from advisory work at Ungender. Our team specializes in advising workplaces on workplace diversity and inclusion. Write to us at contact@ungender.in to understand how we can partner with your organization to build a more inclusive workplace.