Fall 2014 Schedule

Background reading:

Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering (2007)

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11741

October 1, 6pm, Jenkins 107: Both men and women discriminate against women in the scientific workplace

Open access article: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/09/14/1211286109

Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students (2012) Moss-Racusin, C.A., J.F. Dovidio, V.L. Brescoll, M.J. Graham, & J. Handelsman, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 109: 16474-9

November 12, 6pm, Jenkins 107: What is Unconscious Bias?

And what can we all do to avoid bias in our professional interactions?

December 3, 6pm, Jenkins 107: The confidence gap

Article: http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/04/the-confidence-gap/359815/

Kay, K. & C. Shipman, The confidence gap, in The Atlantic2014, Atlantic Media Company: Washington, DC.

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Announcing: Workshops on Overcoming Bias & Barriers to Women in Science

This is a new Workshop/Journal Club in which we will meet to discuss gender issues that could be affecting our scientific careers.

Who should come?  Everyone is welcome, including faculty, post-docs, research assistants and graduate students. All genders are welcome. Come if you are a woman or know a woman or have a daughter or a sister or a wife that could be affected by the the unconscious barriers that affect women in STEM. Come if you are a man and want to advocate for gender equity in STEM. The goal will be to raise awareness so that bias and barriers can be overcome.

Why is this important?  Documented by a landmark National Academy of Sciences study in 2007, women are broadly under-represented in STEM faculty and other leadership positions at academic institutions and in professional societies. Unconscious bias is part of the problem facing women, however women can also contribute to the unintended prejudices against them by displaying certain behaviors that confront social expectations. With a view to increase awareness of these issues to move beyond barriers in STEM, these workshops will examine and discuss the social science literature on these issues.

Organization: The typical meeting will be focused around a literature article from the social psychology field. Topics of these articles will include confidence differences in women and men, implicit biases, gender-expected behaviors and stereotypes, and hiring & evaluation practices.

Outcomes: These workshops have two desired outcomes: (1) We hope to raise awareness on gender differences and how these affect our development as scientists; and (2) We hope to identify strategies that can be used to become more effective in the professional scientific environment.

We plan to meet monthly during the academic year. The first meeting will be October 1.

The fall schedule can be found here.

The tentative spring schedule can be found here.

This site is maintained by students in the AGIS group and by the faculty founder, Dr. Karen Fleming.