Gender stereotypes are much more prevalent then many employers would like to think – I could write a gender stereotype War and Peace of the stories I’ve heard from both the women who are discriminated against (or suspect they are) and the employers who have been shocked to realize what was going on in their own ranks. To combat this, I recommend the Catalyst Gender Stereotype risk assessment tool which has been created to assess how corporate business units to assess their risk of gender stereotyping. They plan to add a feature for assessing a whole organisation soon. If you think there is even an outside chance that gender stereotypes are present at your work, it’s worth doing.
I also wrote this blog about how the threat of stereotyping can impact your female employees performance reviews, meaning you may not be aware of their real value till someone else pinches them.