Category Archives: Unconscious Bias

Iowa State Study: Informing students about bias in SETs may reduce bias

apple-3256487_1920Here’s the abstract:

Student evaluations of teaching are widely believed to contain gender bias. In this study, we conduct a randomized experiment with the student evaluations of teaching in four classes with large enrollments, two taught by male instructors and two taught by female instructors. In each of the courses, students were randomly assigned to either receive the standard evaluation instrument or the same instrument with language intended to reduce gender bias. Students in the anti-bias language condition had significantly higher rankings of female instructors than students in the standard treatment. There were no differences between treatment groups for male instructors. These results indicate that a relatively simple intervention in language can potentially mitigate gender bias in student evaluation of teaching.

 

From “Mitigating gender bias in student evaluations of teaching” by David A. M. Peterson, Lori A. Biederman, David Andersen, Tessa M. Ditonto, Kevin Roe

 

Where We Stand – Hope to see you on Monday, Nov 4!

Where We Stand: Mentorship, Community, & Equity

Of course, bias exists—conscious and unconscious. At this event we’ll generate concrete ways to counter those norms and cultivate academic communities in which everyone can do their best work.

This event is for the entire Homewood campus.

We hope you will join Dean Beverly Wendland and the WFF@H for a lively evening.

Please expect: good food; Sharpies; brainstorming; a slide show; reading materials to browse; presentations about bias; Legos for kids; a wall for you to post anonymous do’s & don’ts related to mentorship & community building; and discussions led by undergrads, grad students, staff, faculty, and administrators.

The event is Mon, Nov 4 from 5:30-7pm in the Mudd Atrium. Sorry about the late hour, but this is the time we are able to get an appropriate space. Kids, friends, family–all are welcome.

 

 

 

Where We Stand – Monday, Nov 4, 5:30pm @ Mudd Atrium

Screen Shot 2019-10-19 at 5.17.40 PM.pngPlease join Women Faculty Forum & Dean Beverly Wendland two weeks from today!

Our discussion topic is Mentorship, Community, and Equity.

We all know that bias exists—conscious and unconscious. At this event we’ll generate concrete ways to counter those norms and cultivate academic communities in which everyone can do their best work.

This includes looking very hard at the way we do research. To read more about Perez’s book, which will be one of our topics of discussions, check out our previous post here.

 

Image credit: https://smile.amazon.com/Invisible-Women-Data-World-Designed/dp/1419729071/ref=sr_1_1?crid=NTYO9GMY2Q5I&keywords=invisible+women&qid=1571592060&s=books&sprefix=invisible+women%2Caps%2C266&sr=1-1

WFF@H Annual Report 2018-19

Screen Shot 2019-09-22 at 9.55.21 PMIt’s all here in one handy pdf – our year with the NAS report on sexual and gender harassment, ongoing discussions around graduate student mentoring, our exchanges with leadership on student evaluations of teaching (SETs).

Please share with your colleagues and leaders. Thank you!

WFF_AnnualReport2018-19_ForWeb

“Wisdom without apology”

Today, a brief excerpt from Tina Brown’s NYT op-ed “What Happens When Women Stop Leading Like Men: Jacinda Ardern, Nancy Pelosi and the power of female grace”

It’s past time for women to stop trying to cram themselves into outdated NASA spacesuits designed for an alien masculine physique. Salvation doesn’t lie in pursuing traditional male paths of ejaculatory self-elevation. In drawing on women’s wisdom without apology and pushing that wisdom forward into positions of power, we can soothe our world and, maybe, even save it.

Image: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/30/opinion/women-leadership-jacinda-ardern.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes

Related: Marisa Porges, “What the Failed All-Female Spacewalk Tells Us About Office Temperature: In a for-men, by-men world, the little things still really do hurt women”