Study shows unconscious bias has serious effects for women in STEM fields

Yesterday, I posted about one of the effects of the dearth of women in science – women’s voices not being heard.  Today, we can talk about one of the causes: unconscious bias.

In a recent study, 127 science faculty members at research institutions were given resumes of applicants for a lab manager position. All resumes given out were identical, except for being randomly assigned a male or female name.  Faculty members were asked to rate the competence of the applicant, and how much pay and mentoring would be offered to the applicant.  The male applicants were rated more competent and hireable than female applicants.  Starting salaries decided upon for male applicants were higher than for the female applicants, and the male students would have been given more career mentoring.  The starting salary to be offered to female applicants was about $26,000, compared to about $30,000 for the male applicants.

These results held regardless of the gender, age, field, or tenure status of the faculty member.  These results are discouraging, and they indicate the pervasive and deep seeded nature of unconscious bias.  Yes, some people are legitimately prejudiced against women.  However, I think the main issue here is unconscious bias.  Unconscious bias occurs when people act/make decisions based upon subconscious prejudices that they may not be aware of.  Even people that support equality for women can have subconscious biases against women, based on the stereotypes that pervade our society.  The unconscious bias confirmed by this study leads to real consequences for women in science: decreased chances of being hired, less mentoring, and significantly less pay.  Everyone has unconscious biases; even women can be unconsciously biased against women.  That’s why it is so important that everyone be aware of the existence of unconscious bias, so that they make an effort to be aware of their biases when deciding who to hire/work with.  The more people are made aware of the existence of unconscious bias, the more we can begin to chip away at the issues that arise because of it.