News

To reduce gender biases, acknowledge them

August 22, 2017

I was asked by the journal Nature to write an editorial on how gender bias shapes the way we see the world, often unknowingly, and what we can do about it.

But there is a third argument that I make for people with scientific and technical backgrounds: if you value rationality and objectivity, you need to engage with gender bias. That’s because bias is part of us: we live in a world steeped in conventional gender roles. To borrow a metaphor from computing, biases have root privileges in our brains.

#gender #science #writing

I wrote an editorial for *Bitch Planet*!

January 6, 2016

One of my favorite comic book series is Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine DeLandro's Bitch Planet, about a future where 'non-compliant' women are sent to the eponymous prison planet. The back of the comic is a community pace that includes editorials, artist profiles, letters, and more. I was so honored to be able to write an editorial for it, "Countering the Self-Fulfilling Prophecies of Gender Schemas," in which I talked about Virginia Valian's work on how we have mental models of men and women, and how even small gender biases can have a significant cumulative effect:

And the effects of these tiny, unconscious assumptions are cumulative. Because being professionally competent is not part of the gender schema for women, they're less likely to be listened to, to be given responsibility, and to have their successes recognized as a result of their own ability. Men (who are presumed to be professionally competent) are more likely to be given responsibility, which means more chances to prove themselves, which means they are more likely to be promoted--and the cycle continues.

Read the whole editorial here. [PDF]

More about Bitch Planet.

#gender #bitchplanet #writing

Gender differences and design

April 11, 2015

I was invited to give a talk at the Matter[ing] by Design symposium at Parsons/New School, and I spoke about gender differences and design, including Lego, snowboards, artificial hearts, and engineering education. My talk starts at the 19 minute mark, but I highly recommend the talk that follows mine (at 35min) by Genevieve Bell, an anthropologist, who was then at Intel.

#gender #design #engineering #education #lego #speaking