Women & Science
- Jul 29, 2015
- 2 min read
Female undergraduate students in science and mathematical related majors at universitites across the county are portryed to be less competent than their male counterparts even if they both have the same accomplishments and skills. Due to this, science professors, at Yale University, conducted a study to figure out why this phenomena happens and the results are interesting.
In this study, the Yale researchers contacted professors in the biology, chemistry and physics departments at six major research universisties; three private and three public. These professors were then asked to evaluate an application from a recent graudate seeking a position as a laboatory manager. All of the professors received the same one-page summary which portrayed the applicant as promising but not exeptionally stellar, except half of the descriptions of the applicant was named John and the other half was named Jennifer.
The report found that professors are less likely to offer women mentoring or even a job, even if they were willing to offer a job, the salary was lower. The average starting salary offered to Jennifer was $26,508, while to John it was $30,328. When considereing the gender of the professors, the female professors we just as biased against women students as their male colleagues, and biology professors jus as biased as physics professors. The report also claims that this is probably a reflection of subconscious cultural influences rather than over or deliberate discrimination.
This study that was conducted is extremely important. Many people think that this problem has gone away, but clearly it hasn't. Scientists say that they will rise about this because they were trained to analyze objective data rationally, but when it comes down to it the problem is still there. Should a biased person collect the resumes for these professors, cover their names, and then give them to the professor so they will actually pick based on the applicants skills and qualifications? Do we need to get to a point in society where we have to hide the names of people jsut to ensure they will get an equal opportunity? I am interested to see how this problem gets fixed for the future.
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