Unconscious Bias In Education

Nevertheless, ensuring a diverse administrative position in STEM can be difficult as there is a lack of female participation to begin with. Therefore, the department heads need to emphasize a gender diversity strategy and create a culture that would enable “people of all […] genders to realize their capacities’’ (Sturm qtd. in Su, Johnson, and Bozeman 840). They also need to take an active role in introducing “girl-friendly” environments, combating bias against girls. Ruta Sevo, the director of the National Science Foundation’s research program on gender in STEM, explains that the way science is taught to girls in middle school already demonstrates a gender bias (cited in Glazer 454). It is especially important that departments proactively

For instance, Facebook made it optional for their employees and in 2016 saw a 1% increase in the number of female employees—although unconscious bias training is not necessarily solely responsible for the growth (cited in Mundy 71). There is evidence suggesting that even if unconscious bias training is not made mandatory, people will still attend, and it will lead to greater diversity in an institution (McGregor). Implicit bias training may provide a relatively low-cost option that combats one of the origins of the gender gap: the subconscious discrimination towards women in

The process of incorporating more diversity in STEM is one requiring social change. As the conditions in question exist because of the beliefs of the people that make up society, it will be nearly impossible to change behaviors without first tackling the existing bias. The research on the subject is clear: there is a hidden bias towards women in scientific fields that exists without even an individual’s conscious acknowledgment of its existence. Therefore, it is imperative to first combat the prejudice that humans possess before attempting to change the existing discriminatory practices. Of course, the proposed solutions regarding department chairs at academic institutions and diversity training are both motivated by an attempt to lessen the STEM gender gap; however, all things considered, unconscious bias training is more likely to converge with changing the psychology of the population. Unsurprisingly, implicit bias training may be particularly successful at challenging prejudices that exist in individual’s subconscious. Simply put, its primary goal is to first acknowledge the existence of a prejudice and then attempt to use newly acquired awareness of the bias in order to challenge its effect (Mundy 69). Evidence shows that gender diversity training can have a positive impact on diversification. For instance,