For Carol Price, an educator and lecturer with Career Track, much of this gender bias can be dealt with by establishing your equal status the second you walk in the room. "Once you do that, I really believe gender issues go away," she says. How do you establish equal status? Simply look like you belong at the interview. "That means my head is held up, my shoulders are back, I walk in without hesitation, and I put my hand out," say Price. "A handshake was originally devised to prove we were weaponless. In a job interview, that translates to 'you and I are equal in value'."
Child Care
A Harvard Business Review study documented that "on average, working mothers put in an 84-hour work week between their homes and their jobs." In other words, a working mother essentially hold down two full-time jobs. For women with or likely to have children, the number one task is to assure the interviewer that they do not intend to abandon their families but do intend to devote the necessary time to the job.
Handling questions about child care is simply a matter of turning the situation into a positive. For example, illustrate your management skills by describing how you handled work responsibilities when your child was ill and you needed to be at home. But still be prepared to back up your loyalty claims with actual numbers of days missed from previous jobs.
Issues Related to Men
Just as with women (but in different ways), men are expected to behave in certain ways and quietly accept the limitations imposed on them. For example, men are often expected to have steady employment and not take time off for raising a family or caring for elderly parents.
Even so, there are few situations where being a man will work against you, particularly if you have a good work history. Though issues like the possibility of becoming a stay-at-home dad certainly exist, they seldom come up in interviews because the stereotype works the other way.
Sexual Preference
The Society for Human Resource Management survey reveals that "In our traditional, conservative culture, manager have deeply ingrained biases and fears of gay and lesbian employees."
Although I would advocate directly attacking stereotypes in other categories, I recommend the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the case of sexuality. The risks of divulging such personal information are too great to bring up in an interview, and your sexuality is not something you should have to discuss in a job interview anyway. As with all stereotypes, an employer who would not hire you on such ground is not one you are likely to want to work for.
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