Beating gender bias with restrictions

A woman walks in to a job interview and the leader of the panel says: ‘We don’t believe in gender bias.’ She doesn’t get the job because she’s a woman.

Not much of a punchline, but then it’s no joke. It’s a situation that reflects the conclusion of a recent study: hiring committees with a strong unconscious gender bias, but that do not explicitly think that there are barriers to gender equity, are less likely to hire or promote women.