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What do you see? A bunch of X’s. This is what corporate America looked like in mid-century 1950’s. The X’s represent men in a work group, of course. Think Mad Men on TV. Men working together often accentuate differences in tastes and activities. They discuss grilling, ballgames, cars, architecture, travel, music, etc. In other words, men are men, but each is comfortable being different from other men.
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What do you see? Another bunch of X’s? Or, did you catch the one O at the end? When an O (representing a woman) is introduced into the workplace, an amazing phenomenon happens. She becomes highly visible and becomes the “Token O”. If she is late or on time or sits quietly, she is noticed because she is the only O. We watch her to see what she does and then we assume that all O’s do what our O does.
The X’s in this new workplace suddenly feel the urge to bond over manly interests. The men who once loved to talk cooking and art now talk sports and speak only of manly things. There is an unconscious urge to declare one’s self “not an O”. Men who avoided each other now bond over being manly. Past dislikes are pushed aside in order to unite.
Our token O is a lonely, misunderstood O.
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What do you see now? A bunch of X’s and two O’s? These two O’s become the “Good O” and the “Bad O”! When two women enter a work group, they are invariably compared to each other. One will be pronounced the Good O and one will be pronounced the Bad O. Word spreads through the grapevine. The “Good O” in another setting may not be regarded as good at all. The “Bad O” is, of course, not bad, simply different from the Good O. There will not be two good O’s; nor will there be two bad O’s.
The “Good O Angel” and the “Bad O Witch” both are misperceived and disadvantaged. Their abilities, if perceived through the lens of tokenism, will not be seen or respected.
XOXOXOXOXO
What do you see? A group of X’s and O’s, working together. Now that the O and the X are represented in equal numbers, we tend to see a merged group. We see men and women with assigned duties, skills and contributions.
The magic number of women in a work group for avoiding tokenism or stereotyping is at least three. This way, we avoid the “token woman” and we avoid the “good woman/bad woman” perception. Three women is enough women for us to “give up” unconsciously labeling, stereotyping or comparing.
If your world is a traditionally female dominated field such as teaching or nursing, simply reverse the X and O pattern and you will find it accurate in reverse. The first man in the work group becomes the Token Man. With two men, the Good O Man and the Bad O Man will emerge.
The researcher who documented this phenomenon is Dr. Rosabeth Moss Kantor, professor at Yale, and an obvious “Bad O”!
Anne Murray, all rights reserved
For permission to reprint, include the following contact information; Anne Murray, the Fun Speaker! anne@AnneMurrayFunSpeaker.com, Bowling Green KY 42103, (270) 781-3677
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