John vs. Jennifer
- Jul 29, 2015
- 2 min read
The article "Why "John" Still Gets More Jobs Than "Jennifer" (Yes, in 2015)" written by Noelle Howey, is an interesting article to read and touches on a couple different problems women face in the workforce. The first problem talked about is the implicit bias that remains common in fields of science and technology due to few women being deemed as competent, hirable or recommended for mentoring. This implicit gender bias is not just a STEM phenomenon, it is something that is seen in many fields, especially in those fields that are more associated with men and are less traditional; medicine and law. In both medicine and law, women don't always reach the loftiest positions, and this can be related to that fact that women are more associated with the home and family as well as they want to avoid more male-dominated fields where implicit gender bias is thought to predominate.
In a study that was conducted by Moss-Racusin, a fictional resume for a lab manager position was created where the name "John" was written on half of the resumes and "Jennifer" was written on the other half. After the fake resumes were created, 100 faculty members nationwide were asked to asses the resume they received and explain who they would pick. Even though the resume were identical except for the name on the top, "John" was rate significantly more competent and hirable than "Jennifer" was. Those who did chose "Jennifer," and offered her a job gave her a lower salary than "John"; an average of $4,000 less annually. It is just ridiculous that two people can have the same exact qualities, the same everything, but the fact that one is a male while the other is a female determines who will probably get picked for the job; the male. It is even more ridiculous to think that for colored people, if they have a more "white" sounding name, they are more likely to receive call backs for jobs.
Howey ends her article by giving a list of things we as individuals can do to rid ourselves of these prejudices and to reduce their effects at work. I just think it is crazy that we even need to make a list of these things. We as individuals should not be judged on our names that appear on our resumes or whether we are a man or a woman, we should be judged on the quality of our work and whether or not we are right for the job regardless of our gender or our name. I think it is important for us to help stop this gender bias and step up to it. We as women need to enter those male dominated fields, we need to start support groups to help one another, and we need to make an effort to rid ourselves of these stereotypes, there is something we all can do and we all should be doing.
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