Job Discrimination Discussed

Subtle discrimination in the workplace is reducing job mobility, confidence and social standing for women and minorities, members of a Radcliffe Career Services panel said Wednesday night.

Members of the panel, which was held in Agassiz House before about 40 people, defined subtle prejudice on the job and formulated possible options to eliminate it from working environments.

"Discriminatory micro-inequities are tiny, damaging characteristics of an environment," said Mary P. Rowe, professor at the Sloan School of Management at MIT.

"They are distinguished by the fact that for all practical purposes one cannot do anything about them," she continued. "One cannot take them to court or file a grievance."

According to Rowe, acts of subtle discrimination "occur only because of a group characteristic," such as sex, race or religion.

These prejudices effectively "reduce upward mobility opportunies, hamper mastery and growth in job tasks, and undermine confidence and social standing for women and minorities in the workplace," Rowe said.

Psychologist Sumru Erkut, another panelist, said that one of the chief examples of discrimination in the workplace is the consideration of physical characteristics in choosing workers for promotion.

"Non-traditional workers might not meet those promotion criteria well, but it doesn't mean that they won't do the job well," she said. "We need to rethink performance criteria and promotion criteria."

Erkut suggested that companies could help to alleviate the current problem by establishing employee supports such as mentor programs to strengthen a sense of community on the job.

Also, companies should keep an eye on salary or job inequities which might create ill feeling between workers and management, Erkut said.

In addition, she said, it is the duty of corporations to encourage an atmosphere of productivity free from prejudice.

"We're all different from each other," she said. "It should be the goal of businesses to welcome untraditional employees."