Most people probably understand that sexism exists in workplaces, with real consequences for those who experience it today and rise to leadership positions tomorrow. However, proving it – let alone accurately measuring it – can be hard.
Which is why everyone should read a great, if depressing, research paper that investigates sexism among politicians. Why is it great? Well, first of all there’s the simply brilliant title: “Yellin’ at Yellen: Gender Bias in the Federal Reserve Congressional Hearings”. Second, the researchers developed a simple but powerful way of measuring discrimination that you might have guessed given the great title – they compare how specific congressmen behaved towards Janet Yellen (the first female chair of the Fed from 2014 to 2018) and her male predecessors/successor when they came to give testimony at the US equivalents of our select committees.
