The Buzz: When Unconscious Bias Becomes Conscious, Vocal and Viral

Mother’s Don’t Make Good Stock Traders?

Yet another diversity faux pas last week has gone viral.  Very wealthy and successful hedge fund manager, Paul Tudor Jones, made disparaging remarks on a panel last month at the University of Virginia about a woman’s ability to be a good trader after she has had a child. Responding to a comment about why there were only rich, middle aged men on the panel, Jones said that he had two women working for him on the trading floor in the 70’s and once they had babies, they lost their “laser focus” on the intense world of macro trading.

I can relate to the many challenges professional women faced in the 70’s, which is when I started my career in corporate America, and I can only image how much more  difficult it must have been (and I know still is) for women in traditionally male dominated jobs such as stock trading.

Jones’ comments provide us with a wonderful example of unconscious bias.  He had an experience in the 70’s with two (not much of a sample!) professional women which continues to inform his world view.  I say that it must be unconscious bias because he is also attributed with making this statement:

“Much of my adult life has been spent fighting for equal opportunity, and the idea that I would support limiting opportunity for any segment of society, particularly women, is antithetical to who I am and what I have done.”

I am sure that he has shown his commitment to equality in a number of ways.  However, it is clear that early experiences and messages about women and their ability lingered in Jones’ mostly unconscious mind until they became conscious and vivid on that panel (“As soon as that baby’s lips touched that girl’s bosom, forget it.”). I also think that if he knew his comment would create such a firestorm of criticism he would not have made it.  It is again an example of unconscious incompetence. Many of our leaders think they “get it”, like Jones who professes to “fight” for equal opportunity.  We have to ask, what does equal opportunity mean to him? Does it include only women without children?

Jones’ view is probably not unlike others of his ilk: baby boomer men who remember when…

• Women were few and far between in his profession and most were administrative assistants.
• Organizational cultures were not open to work-life flexibility. There were no lactating rooms for new mothers.
• If you were not willing to work 20 hours a day, you were not committed.
• Women really wanted to be home with their children but worked for necessity.

It is a new day, Mr. Jones. Women can run companies and have children as Marisa Myers is showing us.  Men, today, Mr. Jones, also willingly share child care responsibilities. Men have just as many personal “distractions” (as Mr. Jones would see them) as women.

How many more Mr. Jones’ are out there, harboring old images and perceptions of women, people of color, LGBT, people with disabilities, etc.?  I venture to guess many more.  Rather than ridicule and punish them, we need to support their learning, first with self-awareness of their biases and then with strategies to overcome them.