It can be difficult to create change by only reacting to bias when we see it, or even to recognize bias while it is happening. What if we instead focused on fostering inclusion?
Proactive Allyship
Proactive allyship refers to efforts to increase inclusion (e.g. inviting marginalized coworkers onto key projects).
This can look like:
- Amplifying women’s contributions
- Building a diverse project team
- Offering paid parental leave to all employees
- Including all teammates in social functions
Ada, Ben, & Rajesh
Let’s return to Ada’s interactions with Ben and Rajesh.
Suppose that Rajesh emails the team ahead of time to announce that Ada will be leading client talks during their next client meeting. Even if Ben suggests Ada should take notes, Ben’s comment doesn’t have the same impact since she is already in charge of leading client talks.
“Hi all, We’re excited to have Ada lead the next round of client talks. Here’s the agenda…”
Note!
Our simulator also assumes that proactive allyship actions always build resilience to gender bias. In reality, this is not always the case.
Even if gender bias does not reduce inclusion (as we are assuming in our simulator), these experiences still result in psychological harm.
The benefits of fostering inclusion
This time, let’s assume that 25% of interactions are biased and 15% of interactions are successful proactive allyship actions (represented by green arrows).
What would an average day at the office look like now?
Notice that individuals who are targets of successful proactive allyship actions are surrounded by a green circle, indicating they are resilient to future gender bias actions.
Reflect: What do you notice about women’s inclusion compared to the previous round?
Try It Out
This time with our simulator, you can use the sliders to adjust the levels of allyship and choose between proactive and reactive.
Change the percentage and type of allied behavior and see what happens to the inclusion level.
Click here to access proactive allyship simulator
Overall:
- Proactive allyship mitigates bias before it happens, reducing exclusion from networks even when a person encounters bias
- Being proactive can foster inclusion and a small amount of proactive actions can have a big impact
Over time, proactive actions can set a norm for organizational culture.
These actions can be more accessible to take as they do not depend on a person seeing bias in real time, and are often more focused on growth and inclusion than confrontation*
From Ada’s Perspective
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