If you go through life believing that any prejudice (sexism, in this case) is dominating your career growth, you will always look for it in the tea leaves, project it onto any situation, and in return invite it. In truth, the person who is prejudiced is you.
For better or worse, disadvantaged minorities always have to consider this. It's probably one of the biggest privileges that white males have in day to day life -- they rarely need to consider if race/gender played a role in any decision they encounter.
There was an interesting experimental study that showed that a white male just released from prison was as likely to get a job callback as a black male with no criminal record [1].
There are typically multiple factors at play for any employment decision, but race and gender loom very large -- large enough that ignoring it is just ignorance.
And note, that the domain matters. Jeremy Lin faced discrimination as a basketball player being Asian. But for most domains, being a white male is preferred.
For better or worse, disadvantaged minorities always have to consider this. It's probably one of the biggest privileges that white males have in day to day life -- they rarely need to consider if race/gender played a role in any decision they encounter.
There was an interesting experimental study that showed that a white male just released from prison was as likely to get a job callback as a black male with no criminal record [1].
There are typically multiple factors at play for any employment decision, but race and gender loom very large -- large enough that ignoring it is just ignorance.
And note, that the domain matters. Jeremy Lin faced discrimination as a basketball player being Asian. But for most domains, being a white male is preferred.
[1] Discrimination in a Low-Wage Labor Market: A Field Experiment, Am Sociol Rev. Oct 1, 2009; 74(5): 777–799, http://www.princeton.edu/~pager/ASR_pager_etal09.pdf