Equalities @ EECS – Page 18 – Queen Mary University of London

WISE@QMUL: Prof. Gina Rippon on Neurotrash, Neurosexism, and Neuronews

Prof. Gina Rippon (Aston University) will deliver a lecture entitled “Neurotrash, Neurosexism, Neuronews – their role in understanding gender differences” to take place 5pm-6pm on Wednesday, 25 February 2015, in the Fogg Lecture Theatre, free and open to all (RSVP: http://goo.gl/f5D6eG).

What is the difference between male and female brains?

Do we contribute to “neurotrash” by asking the wrong questions in the wrong way?

There is a long history of debate about biological sex differences and their part in determining gender roles, with the “biology is destiny” argument being used to legitimize imbalances in these roles. This tradition is continuing, with new brain imaging techniques being hailed as sources of evidence of the “essential” differences between men and women.

But there is good research—neuronews—where brain imaging can make positive contributions to the saga by informing the real story. Are there really any differences in male and female brains, how fixed are these differences, can we “better” or “change” our brains?

This talk aims to offer ways of rooting out the neurotrash, stamping out the neurosexism and making way for neuronews.

Guardian: Female academics face sexist bias in student evaluations

Source: www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2015/feb/13/female-academics-huge-sexist-bias-students

Quotes:

“The strength of this unconscious bias is quite astonishing – even for a relatively objective measure such as promptness, students rated a “female” professor 3.55 out of 5 and a “male” professor 4.35, despite the fact that they handed work back at the same time.”

“The implications are serious. In the competitive world of academia, student evaluations are often used as a tool in the process of hiring and promotion. That the evaluations may be biased against female professors is particularly problematic in light of existing gender imbalance, particularly at the highest echelons of academia.”

“… statistics obtained in 2013 by Times Higher Education revealed that only about one in five UK professors are female, with the percentage of female professors at some universities as low as 8 or 9%.”

“Set alongside the unconscious bias of academic recruiters themselves, as well as the difficulty of juggling parenthood with the demands of research, the apparent sexism in student evaluations provides yet another hurdle for women in academia.”

Schmidt’s Data Visualisations of Gendered Language in Teacher Evaluations

Source: benschmidt.org/profGender

NYTimes: Women Doing Office Housework

In a NYTimes article (6 Feb 2015), Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant write on women doing “office housework”.

Quotes from the article:

“Women help more but benefit less from it. … When a man offers to help, we shower him with praise and rewards. But when a woman helps, we feel less indebted. … When a woman declines to help a colleague, people like her less and her career suffers. But when a man says no, he faces no backlash. A man who doesn’t help is “busy”; a woman is “selfish.””
:
“In a study led by the New York University psychologist Madeline Heilman, participants evaluated the performance of a male or female employee who did or did not stay late to help colleagues prepare for an important meeting. For staying late and helping, a man was rated 14 percent more favorably than a woman. When both declined, a woman was rated 12 percent lower than a man. Over and over, after giving identical help, a man was significantly more likely to be recommended for promotions, important projects, raises and bonuses. A woman had to help just to get the same rating as a man who didn’t help.”
:
“Men can help solve this problem by speaking up. In our previous article, we observed that men have a habit of dominating meetings and interrupting women. Instead of quieting down, men can use their voices to draw attention to women’s contributions. Men can also step up by doing their share of support work and mentoring.”

Full article at www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/opinion/sunday/sheryl-sandberg-and-adam-grant-on-women-doing-office-housework.html

NYTimes: Speaking While Female (Why Women Stay Quiet At Work)

Source: www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/opinion/sunday/speaking-while-female.html

Quotes:

“When a woman speaks in a professional setting, she walks a tightrope. Either she’s barely heard or she’s judged as too aggressive. When a man says virtually the same thing, heads nod in appreciation for his fine idea. As a result, women often decide that saying less is more.”

“Male executives who spoke more often than their peers were rewarded with 10 percent higher ratings of competence. When female executives spoke more than their peers, both men and women punished them with 14 percent lower ratings.”

“When male employees contributed ideas that brought in new revenue, they got significantly higher performance evaluations. But female employees who spoke up with equally valuable ideas did not improve their managers’ perception of their performance. Also, the more the men spoke up, the more helpful their managers believed them to be. But when women spoke up more, there was no increase in their perceived helpfulness.”

“when women challenged the old system and suggested a new one, team leaders viewed them as less loyal and were less likely to act on their suggestions. Even when all team members were informed that one member possessed unique information that would benefit the group, suggestions from women with inside knowledge were discounted.”

“The long-term solution to the double bind of speaking while female is to increase the number of women in leadership roles. (As we noted in our previous article, research shows that when it comes to leadership skills, although men are more confident, women are more competent.) As more women enter the upper echelons of organizations, people become more accustomed to women’s contributing and leading.”

XXFactor: Best way to get good student evaluations? Be male

Source: www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/12/09/gender_bias_in_student_evaluations_professors_of_online_courses_who_present.html

Quotes:

“Students gave professors they thought were male much higher evaluations across the board than they did professors they thought were female, regardless of what gender the professors actually were. When they told students they were men, both the male and female professors got a bump in ratings. When they told the students they were women, they took a hit in ratings.”

“Classwork was graded and returned to students at the same time by both instructors. But the instructor students thought was male was given a 4.35 rating out of 5. The instructor students thought was female got a 3.55 rating.”

NYTimes: When Talking About Bias Backfires

Excerpt from 6 Dec 2014 NYTimes article by Adam Grant, Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and founder of LeanIn.org:

A FATHER and his son are in a car accident. The father is killed and the son is seriously injured. The son is taken to the hospital where the surgeon says, “I cannot operate, because this boy is my son.”

This popular brain teaser dates back many years, but it remains relevant today; 40 to 75 percent of people still can’t figure it out. Those who do solve it usually take a few minutes to fathom that the boy’s mother could be a surgeon. Even when we have the best of intentions, when we hear “surgeon” or “boss,” the image that pops into our minds is often male.

… new research suggests that if we’re not careful, making people aware of bias can backfire, leading them to discriminate more rather than less. … we need to be explicit about our disapproval of the leadership imbalance as well as our support for female leaders.

When more women lead, performance improves. … A comprehensive analysis of 95 studies on gender differences showed that when it comes to leadership skills, although men are more confident, women are more competent.

To break down the barriers that hold women back, it’s not enough to spread awareness. If we don’t reinforce that people need — and want — to overcome their biases, we end up silently condoning the status quo.

So let’s be clear: We want to see these biases vanish, and we know you do, too.

NYTimes: Even Among Harvard Graduates, Women Fall Short of Their Work Expectations

Claire Cain Miller reports in a 28 Nov 2014 NYTimes article on findings from a first installment of data from a study by the Harvard Business School that tracks its alumni over time:

Women are not equally represented at the top of corporate America because of the basic facts of motherhood: Even the most ambitious women scale back at work to spend more time on child care. At least, that is the conventional wisdom.

… even though career-oriented women don’t see their roles as different from men’s, other factors — like public policy, workplace norms and men’s expectations — are stuck in a previous era, when the lives of women and men looked very different.

“Most people think the reason for women’s stalled advancement is they prioritize family over work and ratchet back hours,” said Robin Ely, a professor and senior associate dean for culture and community at Harvard Business School, who worked on the study. “But when we looked at those things statistically, nothing explained the gender gap in membership in top management teams.”

Implicit Bias Training, Gender Bias in Neuroscience & Recruitment

Confronting Implicit Gender Bias in Neuroscience

The Society for Neuroscience website provides information on Implicit Bias, gender bias in the field and webinars on bias, recruitment and retention.

Found: 28/11/2014.

Source: www.sfn.org/Careers-and-Training/Women-in-Neuroscience/Department-Chair-Training-to-Increase-Diversity/Confronting-Implicit-Gender-Bias-in-Neuroscience