Women leaders face 30 types of workplace bias — and it's not just about appearance or age, study finds

It's well-documented that women in the workplace often face biases when seeking leadership roles, but new research is uncovering just how pervasive and wide-ranging those prejudices can be.

In the working world, women leaders report experiencing 30 types of identity factors that discriminate on everything from their body size to marital status, according to new research from Wilson College chief information officer Amy Diehl, Westmont College dean Leanne Dzubinski and Clarkson University professor Amber Stephenson published in the peer-reviewed Human Resource Development Quarterly.

The findings stem from the trio's 2023 research into age discrimination. That work, published in the Harvard Business Review, found that women in the workplace face bias regardless of their age, with their superiors often viewing them as too inexperienced if they are young and too unworthy of promotion if they are older. The new study surveyed more than 900 women in leadership roles in four industries where women comprise a large share of the workforce — health care, higher education, law and faith-based nonprofits.