When women notice incivility at work, they’re more likely to anticipate gendered backlash — and they withhold ideas as a consequence.
January 21, 2025
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Incivility at work isn’t good for anyone. But while both men and women are less likely to speak up in uncivil environments, women are more likely to withhold their ideas due to concerns about gender backlash. In two studies involving over 3,000 participants, researchers found that while women voiced ideas as much as men in civil groups, they were more likely to withhold contributions in uncivil groups. Addressing incivility at an organizational level is crucial for fostering a more inclusive and innovative workplace, as creating respectful environments encourages diverse perspectives that lead to greater inclusion and innovation.
Employers want to hear from employees. Employees have the most experience with on-the-ground operations, so if they don’t share what they know, managers can miss out on ways to improve services or avoid problems. Hearing from employees with different experiences is especially important, and those who are from different social categories (e.g., genders, races, or cultures) can often provide a better mix of perspectives and ideas. For example, researchers found that military teams performed better on complex tasks when they listened to ideas from the lone woman member of the team than when they ignored or lacked a woman’s perspective.
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Kristin Bain is an Assistant Professor of Management at Rochester Institute of Technology. She researches groups, focusing mostly on the factors that affect groups’ ability to use members’ diverse expertise and information. She is particularly interested in what prevents members from speaking up and what helps others hear them when they do.
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Kathryn Coll is an Assistant Professor of Management in the College of Business at the University of Nevada Reno. She earned her PhD in Organizational Behavior from the Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah. Her research interests include voice and silence; group information processing; and workplace incivility.
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Tamar A. Kreps is an Associate Professor of Management and Industrial Relations at the Shidler College of Business, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. She earned her PhD in Organizational Behavior from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Her research interests include diversity, equity, and inclusion; ethical values and beliefs; and mental health.
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Elizabeth R. Tenney is an Associate Professor of Management at the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah. Her research explores factors that affect decision processes in groups and organizations. She is particularly interested in how overconfidence and other biases influence social interactions and credibility.
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Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning’s online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.
How to build a better, more just workplace.
