tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6374266320411149509.post7271243031424050968..comments2024-03-25T10:22:36.277-04:00Comments on Women In Astronomy: Struggling Against Gender Bias in STEM FieldAmanpreet Kaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08734178178113146899noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6374266320411149509.post-61944299985194600982016-03-18T13:31:37.215-04:002016-03-18T13:31:37.215-04:00Very interesting article ....
One thing that stru...Very interesting article ....<br /><br />One thing that struck me were the statements ...<br /><br />"strongly preferred female candidates to male ones by a highly significant 2:1 advantage. Williams and Ceci conclude, “Efforts to combat formerly wide-spread sexism in hiring appear to have succeeded...."<br /><br />While welcome in addressing the highly-skewed (and unfair) demographic of gender profile in astronomy departments, isn't a 2:1 female-male advantage still sexism? If this study is taken at face value, doesn't it just mean that affirmative action is working (and/or starting to work), but that the system is still biased ... just that this time, it's in the other demographics favor (perhaps deservedly so) ?<br /><br />Perhaps one ought to debate whether we need to promote affirmative-action first (to address/redress historical wrongs) and then equality second ? One would hope, that at some point in the not-too-distant future, we'll *only* need equal opportunity policies.<br /><br />--Interested Party<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6374266320411149509.post-54194013656854678022016-03-15T10:23:09.169-04:002016-03-15T10:23:09.169-04:00Could it be possible that the participants in the ...Could it be possible that the participants in the hiring decision study have adjusted their evaluation of women up in response to the negative influences on hiring women that normally exist but are not tested in the study?<br /><br />So, let's assume participants in this study operate in a normal (gender biased) environment AND are attempting to track job candidate quality (regardless of gender). If women candidates come with a host of (non-CV present) impeding factors such as more hostile questions at interview, less positive recommendation letters, etc which have the effect of undervaluing their appearance with respect to their true quality, then a reasonable reaction is to compensate by over-valuing women when looking a their CVs alone. This mechanism would then produce a pro-women bias in the hiring study, and be compatible with our observation that women are under-represented in actual STEM jobs.<br /><br />Possible? Plausible? Tom Staffordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12749331875656699660noreply@blogger.com