Gender bias

Holden, C. (1986). Proposed new psychiatric diagnoses raise charges of gender bias. Science, 231, 327-328. 

So at MIT now there are equity committees in all five schools, and they are collecting data and so on. I think this is a terrific thing. At least we can ensure equity in measurable resources and rewards. The only problem we have is those 800 faculty who have not been involved in these activities at all, at least some of whom either don t know this happened or don t believe it is true. Somehow we have to raise awareness about unintentional gender bias, and that of course is the real challenge. However, I think that, with institutional support and change, we have a real chance at MIT. But the job is hard, and the question is, Can we do more—both at MIT and perhaps also outside MIT What is a more general solution to this problem I don t know, but I would make the following comments. 

Women have known for a long time that two major reasons for their underrepresentation on science faculties in the United States are gender bias and the greater family responsibilities that fall to women. Many studies like the one at MIT have documented gender bias, and we have heard at this meeting that it is a well-known phenomenon in many fields beside science, and that study after study confirms this. This is not about affirmative action, this is about discrimination and exclusion in a profession that requires extensive interaction. 

We must call a moratorium on further studies that try to document gender bias. While gender bias is not universal, we must accept that it is so common a problem that we must institutionalize the actions needed to guard against it, correct its consequences, and raise consciousness to ultimately eliminate it—in both men and women. 

Institutions must accept responsibility for eliminating gender bias. Now that the problem is so... 

Dooley MJ, Poole SG, Rischin D, Webster LK. Carboplatin dosing gender bias and inaccurate estimates of glomerular fUtration rate. Em J Cancer 2002 38(1) 44-51. 

LaRosa GH, Pinn VW. 1993. Gender bias in biomedical research. J. Am. Med. Womens Assoc. 48(5) 145-151. 

It has been widely speculated that job evaluation is susceptible to gender bias. To date, three ways that job evaluation can be biased against women have been studied (Schwab and Grams 1985). 

The second possible source of gender bias in job eveiluation flows from the gender of the individual evaluators. Some argue that male evaluators may be less favorably disposed towetfd jobs held predominantly by women. To date, the research finds no evidence that the job eveiluator s gender or the predominant gender of the job-evaluation committee biases job-eveiluation results (Lewis and Stevens, 1990). 

The implications of this evidence are important. If, as some argue, market rates and current pay cilready reflect gender bias, then these biased pay rates could work indirectly through the job-evaluation process to deflate the evaluation of jobs held primarily by women (Grams and Schwab... 

McShane, S. L. (1990), Two Tests of Direct Gender Bias in Job Evaluation Ratings, Journal of Occupational Psychology, Vol. 2, pp. 129-140. 

Gear generating, 1323 Gear-shaping machinery, 467 Gender bias, 916... 

Scott, K, A, and Brown, D.J. (2006). Female first, leader second Gender bias in the encoding of leadership behavior. Leadership Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 101(2), 230-242,... 

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