Women Receive Less Positive Feedback at Work Than Men

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Management software company Textio released a report surveying 450 participants that reveals that feedback in the workplace varies greatly depending on a person’s gender or race. The study shows that 67 percent of men were described as “intelligent,” while only 32 percent of women said they received the same feedback. The numbers get even more stark when you add race in the mix. Only 18 percent of Black workers report saying they were labeled as intelligent compared to nearly 50 percent of their white and Asian counterparts. 

Women in general report hearing feedback calling them brilliant, gifted, and talented far less often than men. Meanwhile Black women in the workplace are often described as “unlikeable” or “emotional” compared to their non-Black male coworkers.

“We tend to relate to women in the workplace based on how they make the people around them feel, rather than the work that they’re doing. That means we comment on how friendly, collaborative, difficult, and likable they are. Those qualities don’t necessarily relate to the quality of the work that she’s doing,” Kieran Snyder, co-founder and data analyst for Textio, told Fortune. “Men are mostly receiving feedback about their work. They’re developmental observations, they’re constructive. And then when you look at women, the positive observations are not generally about the work. They’re about the woman’s demeanor, personality, or disposition.”

Women are more likely to internalize this negative feedback and it impacts their self esteem and performance despite the quality of their work output being above average and it’s driving many female employees to quit. 

The information in this report isn’t necessarily surprising. Black women face discrimination in and out the office. In the workplace, when Black women express high levels of confidence and talent in their work, they may be perceived as a threat to their employers. On a phenomenon coined “pet to threat” by scholar Kecia M. Thompson, Black women find themselves either infantilized in the workplace or else ostracized and deemed aggressive if they excel in their work and begin making demands of management.

This is true across professions and fields for Black people in the office, in academia, in the tech industry, and beyond. Black women and Black men experience tokenism, microaggressions, and pressure to assimilate to office culture. More often than not, African Americans experience outright racial bias and hostility from coworkers or management.

In a world where Black men and women in the office may feel like they can’t do anything right, it’s important to be able to hype yourself even when no one else will. 

Create strong relationships in and out of your place of work, have allies, even if it’s just a group of colleagues who have your back and pour into you as you pour into them. And find a mentor who can help you navigate your office’s culture and give you more specific advice on how to advance.

At the end of the day, remember your work is not–and should not be–your whole life. Find joy in living a full life outside of the office by investing in hobbies, in your friendships, and your mental health. Practice journaling and repeating mantras and affirmations that affirm your sense of self, your talents, and your value. Cultivate a spiritual practice or try therapy to help fortify your mind for when you may walk into a hostile work environment. And don’t be afraid to walk away if the workplace and the feedback you’re getting causes you more harm than good.

Toni Morrison wrote in The New Yorker about the importance of understanding the difference between the work you do and the person you are. “You don’t live there. You live here, with your people,” Morrison wrote about advice she received from her father after a particularly hard day on the job. “Go to work. Get your money. And come on home.”

It’s important at any stage in your career to remember your worth and to find fulfillment outside of your work. No matter what feedback you get, remember you make the job, it doesn’t make you.

You are your best thing.

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