Upstander Intervention—Breaking the Silence and Building Anti-Discrimination Norms

We just completed two whole months since the semester began. How has your semester been? How have your actions for gender equity and allyship been going? Like many other things, allyship is a lifelong journey during which one experiences much satisfaction but also some frustrations including reflections on one's own successes and failures and the emotions related to those. One of the biggest challenges that allies face is acting as an “upstander” instead of a bystander calling out bias on the spot or in the moment or following up with a victim of discrimination. However, despite its challenging nature, upstanding is too crucial to allyship for allies to neglect it. That is because the silence of bystanders, who are usually colleagues and peers of the victim, adds to the detrimental effects of bias incidents, both on the victim and gender equity writ large. The silence normalizes discriminative language and other actions toward women in an organization. In organizations with a “culture of silence”, victims of gender bias endure a heavy emotional and psychological toll, which is exacerbated by the seeming indifference of their colleagues. In the words of Martin Luther King Jr.: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” This week, we will discuss why bystander intervention (upstanding) is essential in changing our IUB campus climate on gender equity and ways to improve allies’ confidence and capacity to be an upstander.   

We also encourage you to learn about our upcoming workshop this week, offering a collaborative learning opportunity to improve your skills and confidence as an upstander.   

Action Tips for Allies

• Improve upstander self-efficacy.^{2, 3} As the image above shows, upstanding requires evaluating situations and navigating how feelings and identities play roles in interventions. To manage these processes of intervention effectively and in a timely fashion, both confidence and skills are needed. This is because allies are less likely to intervene if they lack the confidence to navigate the situation when bias or harassment incidents occur and think they might not have the skills to do so. Both confidence and skills can be improved through constant, frequent, and continual engagement in self-education and upstanding. Men participating in the Men’s programs that aim to educate men on bystander intervention are the most consistent at improving men’s confidence in and willingness to upstand.⁴  
• Ask questions. Bias and harassment occur in various forms and contexts. Therefore, there are different ways to intervene. A common form of bias that can be confusing for many allies is jokes and humor. It is instinctive to laugh along with colleagues even if you disagree with the negative message being sent (and that message is often subtle). Like other forms of upstanding, learning to intervene when faced with discriminative humor takes planning and practice. A common perception is that the only way to upstand is through confrontation, by calling out assertively or even aggressively. However, a simple and effective technique for an upstander is to genuinely ask the perpetrator or other bystanders questions like “What do you mean by that?”, “Is this really okay?”, “Should we be doing this?” or “I don’t think I heard you right. Could you say that again?” Using questions helps everyone in the situation pause and reflect, which helps to evoke upstanding in people who would otherwise be bystanders. Simple expressions of disagreement, such as “I disagree with that” or “I don’t think I agree,” can also be meaningful and helpful in such situations.⁵