Overcoming Confirmation Bias en route to becoming an Active Bystander in Support of Equity, Diversity & Inclusivity for Women in STEM

Overcoming Confirmation Bias en route

to Becoming an Active Bystander in

Support of Equity, Diversity & Inclusivity

for Women in STEM

Some stuff that I learned in the last 3 years, about the

ongoing challenges faced by #WomenInSTEM

Dawn Bazely, Biology, YorkU @dawnbazely

with huge thanks to Prof Kate McPherson, History/Women’s & Gender Studies & Equity,

YorkU for situating my thoughts in a scholarly framework

The next 15 minutes

• Why I am here today

• Old Stuff from the 1970s-90s

• New Stuff I learned about in the last 3 years that

sheds light on the systemic resistance to change

• Ideas about what we can all do (including me) to

Take Action

OUR WORLD IS DATA RICH

BUT INFORMATION POOR

From Simba Analytics Data Mining Webpage

Proximate cause of what got me here today

Post-Truth Fake News

Proximate cause of what got me here today

A 2013 Council of Ontario Universities Invited

Sustainability Symposium at YorkU was 100% male

I emailed & spoke with the Ontario Research Chair organizers, and speakers about the unacceptability of

this

2015, 2 of them did it again (above, starred)

http://dawnbazely.lab.yorku.ca/2015/09/open-letter-asking-the-canadian-academic-stem-community-to-

improve-gender-balance-in-speaker-line-ups/

Proximate cause of what got me here today

Proximate cause of what got me here today

Old Stuff from the 1970s-90s

• Women in STEM advocacy

isn’t new

• in1970s-90s policy aimed to

increase female intake to

STEM programmes

• science was gendered as

being male, and simply

needed to switch to being

gender neutral

Old Stuff

What’s going on?the policies didn’t bring the expected results of more women

at all STEM levels (i.e. a reversal of the leaky pipeline)

Old Stuff

–Mildred Dresselhaus, physicist, MIT, b.1930

Reflections of a woman pioneer, by Vijaysree Venkataraman, Nov. 11, 2014,

Science

“Q: Are there hidden barriers to women’s advancement?

A: Yes. I was a great believer in the idea of a critical mass of female

students. With a minimum of 15% in each class, I thought the lack of

isolation would be enough. The guys would get it and everything would

change automatically.

In the 1980s, we were coasting toward these numbers. At the faculty level,

men and women seemed to have equal chance of attaining tenure. In 1984,

I became president of the American Physical Society and focused less on

these women’s liberation-related issues. I genuinely believed I had done

something towards bringing us closer to parity in over 15 years.

A decade later, Nancy Hopkins initiated her eye-opening study on the status

of women at MIT. The data on pay scales, lab space, and other resources

allotted to women showed how wrong I was. I thought numbers alone could

stimulate a change in attitudes.

Nancy said that we’d have to beat on these guys to change things..”

Old Stuff

Why did the project to increase

intake fail to shift cultural norms?

A. Research from the Social Sciences has

demonstrated the systemic impacts of implicit or

unconscious bias.

B. Social media has led to increasing awareness

that…

… STEM #BoysWithToys can be sexual harassers,

just like in every other segment of society

… Clancy et al. 2014

New Stuff

New Stuff

New Stuff

New Stuff

What’s going on?

Published: July 16, 2014

http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102172

New Stuff

The infamous results…• internet survey of 666 field scientists (anthropology to agriculture)

• codes of conduct & sexual harassment policies weren’t regularly

encountered

• 72% had observed or been told about inappropriate

remarks/behaviours

• 64% had experienced sexual harassment (verbal)

• 21.7% had experienced sexual assault

• were discussed in the New York Times, and in journal clubs across

the world

• Clancy et al. crystallized a watershed moment…

New Stuff

Plus ça change, plus c'est la

même chose? But…

1. The focus of activism around women in STEM has changed from increasing pipeline intake, to increasing retention.

2. Title IX, old USA legislation, is being used in new ways to address sexual harassment of Women in STEM by senior male faculty (see my SWEEET 2016 talk —google Bazely Slideshare). UK has Athena SWAN & Australia has SAGE Pilot.

3. Social Media is game-changing in connecting previously isolated Women in STEM activists and their allies.

New Stuff

The Social Media Game-Changer

• creates the critical mass of

women in STEM and allies

imagined by Mildred

Dresselhaus

• overcomes isolation

• allows networking and the

sharing of stories

Take action

Network to find allies

• like Laurier University

doctoral student, Eden

Hennessey

• her sociology research

examines barriers faced by

Women in STEM through

a photographic art lens

• #DistractinglyHonest &

#DistractinglySexist are

travelling exhibits

Take action

Take action

Organize an International Ada

Lovelace Day event on campus

• a friendly STEM librarian will help

you

• see my 6-step how-to:

• http://dawnbazely.lab.yorku.ca/20

16/07/six-steps-to-making-your-

very-own-ada-lovelace-day-in-fall-

2016/

• We posted this year’s talk by Prof.

Bryan Gaensler, on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v

=8JB9BMIE6WI

Take action

Participate in a Wikipedia

Editathon

• find a friendly STEM

librarian to help you

• there’s lots of advice and

it’s easier than it looks

• That’s Judy Myers from

slide 7:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wik

i/Judith_H._Myers

Take action

Take the Harvard Implicit

Bias Test• To help you to overcome

your confirmation bias

• I did

• I discovered that I’m racist

& sexist

• I unconsciously defer to

white males as authority

figures

• YES, ME 😟😳😱😤🤔

Take action

Educate senior STEM academics &

get them to be Active Bystanders• students cannot be expected to bear the burden of change

• senior academics must create the space for the conversation and be

held accountable for not taking appropriate action

• https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/academic-gossip-network-fails-punish-senior-scientists

Take action

This includes nominating

women for prestigious awards

Congratulations, Imogen!

Take action

TAKE HOMES

1. The focus of activism by women in STEM has

changed from increasing intake to the pipeline, to

increasing retention (Clancy et al. address this).

2. Title IX, old USA legislation, is being used in new

ways to address sexual harassment of Women in

STEM by senior male faculty. UK has Athena

SWAN & Australia has SAGE Pilot.

3. Social Media is connecting previously isolated

Women in STEM and their allies.

Thank you to Kate McPherson