As we mark Women's Equality Daywe will see our social media feeds filled with inspirational quotes, frustrations and disappointments about how far we still are from achieving true equality. With this year's theme “inspire inclusion”, it can often feel scary and overwhelming to consider how we can make an impact in our workplaces. So how can we inspire inclusion?

When it comes to the advancement of women, we study, track, and sometimes feel confused by the metrics that show the disparities in our workforce. We ask ourselves: Why aren't there more women in leadership positions? Why are they? men are promoted at a faster rate than women? Why aren't more women staying here to continue growing their careers with us?

Here's one way we can inspire inclusion as leaders and help advance women: reassess, challenge, and reexamine the performance feedback we give women in our organizations. of biased reactions and the lack of quality feedback over time can negatively impact women's careers. Consider the following three ways we can begin to moderate our biases when it comes to how we evaluate women's performance.

Related: 3 ways women founders can use their value on Women's Equality Day – and beyond

1. Start by understanding the data

According to one new report from Textio, 76% of high-performing women received negative feedback from their bosses compared to just 2% of high-performing men, and 88% of those same women also received feedback about their personality. Only 12% of men received similar reactions.

“Men mostly get feedback about their work. They're developmental observations, they're constructive. And then when you look at women, the positive observations aren't generally about the work. They're about the woman's behavior, personality, or disposition.” , says Kieran Snyderco-founder and data analyst for Textio. “We tend to relate to women in the workplace based on how they make the people around them feel, rather than the work they're doing. That means we comment on how friendly, collaborative, tough and likeable they are. Those qualities don't necessarily correlate with the quality of the work she's doing.”

As leaders, when we judge women more harshly than men, this can also translate into fewer promotions. Another study showed that women are “consistently rated as having less leadership potential” than their male counterparts. This made them 14% less likely to be promoted year over year. In the study, even though women had better performance ratings, their leaders tended to rank them as low potential, indicating how much they believed they would grow and develop.

We cannot change what we do not believe to be true. Start by understanding the data available in the market and share this information with your colleagues. Ask your HR and legal team if you have similar internal data, you can start to review as a team how feedback is given to women versus men and how that translates into performance reviews, promotions and ultimately compensation.

Related: 4 Unconscious Biases That Warp Performance Reviews

2. Suspend your prejudices

In my book, Reimagine Inclusion: Debunking 13 Myths to Transform Your WorkplaceI speak of the importance of our interruption SUPERSTITION when we evaluate performance and care about the biased language that we and others may use.

Ask yourself if you have ever been in a conversation where a woman's performance was evaluated using the following language.

• Is she judgmental or honest?
• Is she abrasive or straightforward?
• Does it take up too much space or express its opinion?
• Is she very quiet or is she an active listener?
• Is she angry or disagreeing?
• Is she impulsive or decisive?
• Is she very mean/whore or determined?
• Is it divisive or divisive?
• Is she emotional or passionate?
• Is she not cooperative or taking credit for the impact she made?
• Is it a show or does it have deep expertise?
• Is she a troublemaker or trouble on the surface?
• Is she a boss or manager?
• Is she a pushover or a team player?
• Is she aloof/cold or birth focused?
• Is she pushy or pushy?
• Is she difficult or does she have a different opinion?
• Is she not committed to her career? Or is this our perception because she is a mother? Do we ask fathers about their career commitment?

The next time you see any of the above happen, try reframing the question and ask yourself and others if you were to use the same language when evaluating men. Disrupting our biases is a key step in ensuring that women are given fair and equal feedback based on their performance.

Related: Do these 17 biases affect you as a leader? The answer is likely yes – Here's how to address them.

3. Ask open-ended questions to help others

Once we begin the work of interrupting our own biases, then we can help others moderate their biases and get them to reevaluate the feedback they give. Asking open-ended questions can help with this. Consider the following questions and statements to help leaders self-reflect:

• What do you mean she doesn't have enough gravitas for the role?
• How has “not being good enough” affected her performance?
• Tell me more about why you think she's not likable enough for the team to follow her.
• Help me understand why you think she has too much confidence.
• What do you mean when you say she is angry and difficult?

Create an environment where you can challenge each other with kindness and respect to ensure you value all talent equally. When we can hold ourselves accountable for giving women fair and practical performance feedback, we will begin to make a difference in the advancement of women in our workplaces.