Unconscious bias is the idea that we all, inside of ourselves, have attitudes and ways that we behave toward people, judgments we make about people, regardless of what our higher thinking is telling us to do. We have a belief, particularly when it comes to promotion, particularly in hiring situations, particularly when we are comparing..... The idea that somehow somebody will be hired based purely on their merit...as if we can do that, first of all. Even when on paper two people look the same, there is an unconscious bias playing behind the decision between two candidates in that way. Sometimes it's way more than unconscious and it's very obvious, but that is something that I think we can address through training and HR policies.
I will go back to some of the examples that Ann used from YWCA Canada about sexual harassment and the ways in which women are treated in a workplace that tell them that they are not allowed to succeed, that they can't push themselves forward, that they shouldn't go for promotions. Those things are sometimes unspoken in a workplace also.