Is asking a female interviewee, "How would you feel about working in a group of all men" acceptable?

[Godhumor]

A colleague asked that the other day in an interview with a potential group manager. My understanding is that EEO specifically bans any and all gender questions, but he insisted it was acceptable as it accurately describes the work environment. I still think the candidate had an EEO case against us if she does not get hired. Thoughts?

[lumberjack_jeff]

1. She's interviewing to be the manager of a group of all men?

It seems a reasonable question to me. Any answer other than "Sure, why not?" suggests a poor fit.

[Herlong]

2. "How would you feel about working in a group of all men"

Acceptable. You should know what you're dealing with before you get the job.

From a woman working with all men,

Herlong.

[southernyankeebelle]

28. I worked in recruiting office of all GIs and I loved it. Don't get me wrong they were respectful

and didn't try anything wrong. They would come in talking to each other and forget I was there and then would say a cuss word. They turn around and say they were sorry. It never bothered me. It was a small office off the beaten path by the post exchange in Ft Bragg, NC years ago. It was one of the best jobs I ever had. They were typical GIs though. I remember once I came out one of the other rooms and here all these guys were standing by the window looking out. I was wondering what they were looking at so I went up to the window and saw they were looking at some pretty woman going into the post exchange. I started laughing and they all turned around not knowing I was there and I said laughing at them You guys we screw a lock door if you could get away with it. They all looked at me and couldn't believe that came out of my mouth. I looked at them and said you know that's what happens when you work with a bunch of men. They all laughed. Great bunch of guys. I'd rather work with a bunch of guys than women.

[ZombieHorde]

3. I don't know the law, but I would feel uncomfortable asking that question.

I would not expect the interviewee to admit to not wanting to work with men anyway.

[Godhumor]

5. The litmus test I was taught is if there is a problem asking the question about one group...

It is probably wrong with any group. In this case I couldn't imagine asking some one something like, "Would you mind working in a group of all Caucasians?"

Maybe I'm being unduly critical, but it just seemed iffy to me.

[ZombieHorde]

6. That is an excellent point, in my opinion.

"How do you feel about working with Jews?"

That would not go over very well for most people in our culture.

[Scuba]

36. Bingo, thread winner.

[DearAbby]

4. Wording it differently

would she find working in an all male environment uncomfortable? I would not find that offensive, it shows your concern for her.

[lumberjack_jeff]

11. "working in" and "managing" are two different things.

The interviewer isn't concerned for her comfort in the job, but her effectiveness in it.

[Godhumor]

12. Correct. He wanted to make sure "She could handle the guys" n/t

[procon]

35. Kaching... no HR mgr would ever let this one pass.

It sets up the company for potential legal action. First, because it's a loaded gender based question, so that's sexism. If the job applicant is otherwise qualified to do the job, the sex of the other workers is as irrelevant as their ethnicity or national origin.


Secondly, the question itself suggests that the male employees have a history of bad behavior toward female workers. That means the management is not just aware, but condones sexual harassment and does e not want to deal with the situation so they expect women not to complain about the hostile workplace conditions.


Kaching... kaching...

[surrealAmerican]

7. Do they ask the male aplicants this question too?

It seems like it's a question that will not elicit a useful response no matter who's asked.

[Godhumor]

9. I believe he wanted to let her know about the environment

I just think he went about it the wrong way, no matter how good his intentions.

[Scootaloo]

8. I would think it depends on if it's a hypothetical or not

If the group literally is all-male, it seems a reasonable enough question to ask.

However, what strikes me as "reasonable" and what the law regards as permissable might not be in line - hell, what I think sounds reasonable might actually be totally unreasonable, and I just can't think of why . So take it with a grain of salt

[Godhumor]

13. Not hypothetical, would be 8 make direct reports n/t

[jp11]

10. I think it is wrong.

At best questions about working with people different than yourself or the like over laying out gender. I see that as a way of subtly asking are you sure you want to work with a group of men? What if instead of men you asked about some other group that wouldn't affect the person's ability to do the job?

Either you want the job and are qualified or not whether you work with women or men or people from another country doesn't matter.

[Ilsa]

14. Why not just inform the interviewee that the

Group is currently all male? Don't risk it as a question. That way she can decline the job if it is offered and she is uncomfortable. The questions seems pointless except to inform her, so just inform her.

The other side of this is that once a woman has a job in this group, maybe more female hires for it will come.

[dballance]

19. I like Ilsa's suggestion

But as always you should consult an attorney.

[CTyankee]

22. If they are seriously considering her why wouldn't they have her come in and meet the men she

would be managing? That way, she would find out of course that they are all men and nobody had to ask that question. If she thought to herself "no way" then she makes the decision not to take the job if offered.

AS a woman, I know I would like to know if the men seemed open to have a woman boss. Pick up subtle hints as to what they are feeling about her as a potential boss. What is their body language? What is their tone of voice.

I think this can be done pretty much in a friendly atmosphere...I'd give that a shot...

[Godhumor]

24. like your suggestion, will bring it up at the next recruiting meeting

2nd stage of interview should be meeting and engaging the team.

[gkhouston]

37. If they're seriously considering her, she likely has experience working in a predominantly

male environment. There might be some men in the group with "female boss" issues, but she's not likely to be a neophyte when it comes to working with lots of men--probably including a few with "female coworker" issues.

[Godhumor]

39. Actually, that was pretty much her answer

To paraphrase, it was: "No problem, I've worked in male dominated companies before."

[Broderick]

15. I wouldn't ask the question

I don't think it is appropriate in an interview.

Does anyone see the challenges regardless? And if you do, do you see the misogynist point of view by asking the question from the get go??? Doesn't seem to me leadership has their role set straight yet or better yet, they have no business being a leader.

[shcrane71]

16. That's a ridiculous/stupid question.

To me it infers that she'll have a problem because her potential subordinates are going to have a problem with her femaleness. That's a fine question if you're in a bar or other non-interview situation. In an interview, it conveys all sorts of other meanings.

[Godhumor]

18. I agree, which is why I confronted him on the point. n/t

[shcrane71]

40. Thank you. I'm sure that will give the guy pause prior to using that question again. nt

[Lars39]

17. "No problem. Have you had problems with that group of men not accepting women managers before?"

Of course your colleague might not like the direction the interviewee's question takes them, so the initial question probably shouldn't be asked.

[aikoaiko]

20. He handled it poorly. You let the interviewee meet the group and then ask...

...if there are any concerns about working in that group.

One should be careful about bring up race, religion, sex, etc issues.

[LiberalAndProud]

21. Would he ask the same question of a man?

That is the litmus test. In the past I was asked about child care arrangements and about possible future babies. If you wouldn't ask a man the question, it shouldn't be a hiring consideration.

[lumberjack_jeff]

27. If he was interviewing to manage a group of all women, I think it's a fair question.

Managing all men workgroups is different than managing all women groups. The experience the guy brings to the job managing a machine shop is only somewhat portable.

[LiberalAndProud]

30. What different management skills are required in an all women, all men or mixed group environment?

This is an honest question. How would you define the skill set differently? Is it just a matter of comfort, or what?

[shcrane71]

41. The difference is a cultural construct.

One of the worst college courses I've ever taken was a Business Communication course. The instructor deviated from the syllabus, and talked about the Mars/Venus book insisting that there are communication differences. However she couldn't provide anything but anecdotal evidence of what women and men want to hear. There was no discussion about inequality in the workplace and how to communicate in ways that avoid offense.

Insisting that people's wants differ based upon sex, and people should be treated differently based upon sex is an antiquated, provincial idea.

[LiberalAndProud]

44. Yes, I believe you're right.

I appreciate your reply, but I was really hoping that lumberjack_jeff would clarify his position. I am almost (99.9%) positive that if a man were being interviewed to manage a group of women, the question wouldn't come up. I perceive a built-in bias and I'm trying to understand why someone might think that it is reasonable.

[shcrane71]

45. In my experience, silence generally indicates an indefensible position.

[coalition_unwilling]

23. Hell no. My personal experience with age discrimination: was interviewing

at Mahalo.com and the person interviewing me asked me how I would feel working with a bunch of younger people. I stuttered and stammered and said I was easy to get along with. I never got an offer from them and have often wondered if it was because of my age (+50) being held against me. Same person interviewing me called his CEO an 'asshole' in the interview, so I'm not sure I wanted to work there anyway.

Does age and sex discrimination happen? Every day. Can it be proven? Hmm.

[unblock]

25. i would absolutely, NEVER ask that question. it's begging for a lawsuit.

the bottom line is that EVEN IF THE LAWSUIT HAS NO MERIT, it's an easy and obvious basis for a rejected applicatant to file one, and then you have to deal with the hassle EVEN IF YOU EVENTUALLY WIN. for this reason, you simply DO NOT bring up any gender-related concerns except in the very rare case that they are necessarily, specifically, a job requirement (not a whole lot of these, beyond stripper, acting, etc.).

but here's why i actually have a real problem with the question: if there were to be a conflict between a female employee and a group of male employees, why on earth would you imply that it's a job requirement for the woman to get comfortable with it? if a problem develops, it's hardly difficult to imagine the possibility that one or all of the men might be at fault, and then THEY should be asked if they had a problem working with a woman. and if they did, they should be let go.

in short, the question may not be the most overtly sexist question, but there's an underlying message that "we're just fine with the all-male way things are, and we don't want you to ruin it." it definitely fall on the wrong side of the law from my point of view.


if you did feel compelled to bring up the concern, a far better way to do that would be to simply have each candidate (not just the women!) meet the entire team. perhaps you get everyone in the conference room and have a group interview. no one says anything about gender, but the candidate can see for themselves that there's not a woman in the bunch. if they have a problem with this, they'll just turn down the job.

better is to just drop the whole topic, but the above solution at least gets away from anything overt. much easier to defend in a lawsuit. provided there's aren't any internal emails that would come out in discovery indicating the group interview was set up specifically to impress upon candidates that this is an all-male group. which is why, again, best is to just not go there in the first place.

[qb]

26. It sounds like a subtle way of discouraging females & keeping the place all male.

[lumberjack_jeff]

29. What kind of workplace is this?

Why is the workgroup all men, and what knowledge of the work does the applicant bring to the supervisory role?

[Godhumor]

32. This is a business analysis group. People would be analysts

Analyst being generally right out of a four year degree to four to five years professional experience. Work is heavily analytical in nature.

Not sure how the group happened to become only male; I've been with the company only since the beginning of the year.

The candidate has ten years analysis experience in an unrelated industry, but similar work requirements. This would be an entry to mid-management role she is being considered for.

It is not my group nor am I on the interview committee. I was selected as the random interview reviewer to ensure nothing inappropriate or audit-able occurred.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

31. I was asked more or less the exact opposite...

Except it was more along the lines of how was I as an unmarried man going to feel working almost entirely with "ticking biological clocks" and "cougars recently released from captivity."

The interviewer was female, I was taken aback by the question at the time and looked at her like she had turtle on her head... but subsequently being hired kinda saw where she was coming from, an office tomcat probably would have become a problem.

[gkhouston]

38. Wow, that's grossly inappropriate, on so many levels. n/t

[BlueIris]

43. That is f-ing AWFUL.

&quot C)ougars recently released from captivity."

[ctaylors6]

33. Why did he ask the question?

Do you think he was trying to discourage her? If so, then my answer would be that's a big huge no-no.

Or was he trying to prevent wasting time of both interviewee and company? I could see how it could be a very poorly worded way of advising an interviewee that she'd have an all-male team reporting to her in case SHE had a problem with it. No one, including an interviewee, likes to go through a whole, long interviewing process only to find out there's some kind of deal-breaker that could have been disclosed early on in the interviewing process.

If it's the latter case, I still think the question was not properly asked. But if the guy who asked the question had good intentions, as I think you said in other post, someone from human resources or legal should give him some guidelines on these kinds of interviewing issues for the future. I've seen even well-trained managers get tripped up interviewing someone and ask a question they really shouldn't like this.

[cynatnite]

34. It's sending a message to the woman that she better stomach what men might say...

It's highly inappropriate. Should never have been asked.

[wildeyed]

42. If someone asked me that question, I would wonder.

To me, it says that the boss thinks the group is either exceptionally hostile and abusive to women, or he is biased against women and assumes that we can't handle the "male" work. I am a female working in a mostly male industry, so it is not a surprise to that my co-workers are mostly male. I would be annoyed and assume discrimination if someone asked me that in an interview.

[WriteWrong]

46. Not okay, because it implies a horribly sexist hiring procedure...

[jade3000]

47. Bad question ... and a bad environment

I agree, the question is inappropriate. The larger problem is why do you have a group of all men in the first place? It seems like there needs to be some reflection and then improved recruiting and/or retention.

[FourScore]

48. The moment the interviewer doesn't see a woman, but a qualified individual is the day

that person has evolved.

The question should most definitely not be asked.

[wickerwoman]

49. I've been asked a similar question more than once.

One was for a job working with miners and the other with people in the forestry industry.

I think the main concern was with me as a woman going out into very rural areas on my own and working almost entirely with men who had no real motivation to take me seriously. I thought it was a valid issue to bring up (although not grounds for hiring or not hiring someone). It was a legitimate safety issue whether it is PC to mention it or not and it was something I factored in when I applied for the jobs. I work in a very male dominated industry and have to visit construction sites, farms, etc. frequently and you are aware that you're constantly being judged on your ability to handle youself in that environment. They might as well ask the question outright so you can address it rather than pretend it isn't a factor. I mean I'd rather be asked than simply not be hired on the assumption that I wouldn't be able to handle it, which is, I strongly suspect, what would happen if employers weren't allowed to ask.