The McGill University Biology Graduate Students Association invited Dean Imogen Coe & myself to talk about Unconscious or Implicit Bias in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. We had great session in Thompson House on 29 November 2016. Thank you Taylor Moulton and your fellow graduate students for creating the space for us to have this conversation. We not only discussed systemic bias faced by women, but also people of colour and other minority cultures.

1. Overcoming Confirmation Bias en route
to Becoming an Active Bystander in
Support of Equity, Diversity & Inclusivity
for Women in STEM
Some stuff that I learned in the last 3 years, about the
ongoing challenges faced by #WomenInSTEM
Dawn Bazely, Biology, YorkU @dawnbazely
with huge thanks to Prof Kate McPherson, History/Women’s & Gender Studies & Equity,
YorkU for situating my thoughts in a scholarly framework

2. The next 15 minutes
• Why I am here today
• Old Stuff from the 1970s-90s
• New Stuff I learned about in the last 3 years that
sheds light on the systemic resistance to change
• Ideas about what we can all do (including me) to
Take Action

3. OUR WORLD IS DATA RICH
BUT INFORMATION POOR
From Simba Analytics Data Mining Webpage
Proximate cause of what got me here today

4. Post-Truth Fake News
Proximate cause of what got me here today

5. A 2013 Council of Ontario Universities Invited
Sustainability Symposium at YorkU was 100% male
I emailed & spoke with the Ontario Research Chair organizers, and speakers about the unacceptability of
this
2015, 2 of them did it again (above, starred)
http://dawnbazely.lab.yorku.ca/2015/09/open-letter-asking-the-canadian-academic-stem-community-to-
improve-gender-balance-in-speaker-line-ups/
Proximate cause of what got me here today

6. Proximate cause of what got me here today

7. Old Stuff from the 1970s-90s
• Women in STEM advocacy
isn’t new
• in1970s-90s policy aimed to
increase female intake to
STEM programmes
• science was gendered as
being male, and simply
needed to switch to being
gender neutral
Old Stuff

8. What’s going on?
the policies didn’t bring the expected results of more women
at all STEM levels (i.e. a reversal of the leaky pipeline)
Old Stuff

9. –Mildred Dresselhaus, physicist, MIT, b.1930
Reflections of a woman pioneer, by Vijaysree Venkataraman, Nov. 11, 2014,
Science
“Q: Are there hidden barriers to women’s advancement?
A: Yes. I was a great believer in the idea of a critical mass of female
students. With a minimum of 15% in each class, I thought the lack of
isolation would be enough. The guys would get it and everything would
change automatically.
In the 1980s, we were coasting toward these numbers. At the faculty level,
men and women seemed to have equal chance of attaining tenure. In 1984,
I became president of the American Physical Society and focused less on
these women’s liberation-related issues. I genuinely believed I had done
something towards bringing us closer to parity in over 15 years.
A decade later, Nancy Hopkins initiated her eye-opening study on the status
of women at MIT. The data on pay scales, lab space, and other resources
allotted to women showed how wrong I was. I thought numbers alone could
stimulate a change in attitudes.
Nancy said that we’d have to beat on these guys to change things..”
Old Stuff

10. Why did the project to increase
intake fail to shift cultural norms?
A. Research from the Social Sciences has
demonstrated the systemic impacts of implicit or
unconscious bias.
B. Social media has led to increasing awareness
that…
… STEM #BoysWithToys can be sexual harassers,
just like in every other segment of society
… Clancy et al. 2014
New Stuff

11. New Stuff

12. New Stuff

13. New Stuff

14. What’s going on?
Published: July 16, 2014
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102172
New Stuff

15. The infamous results…
• internet survey of 666 field scientists (anthropology to agriculture)
• codes of conduct & sexual harassment policies weren’t regularly
encountered
• 72% had observed or been told about inappropriate
remarks/behaviours
• 64% had experienced sexual harassment (verbal)
• 21.7% had experienced sexual assault
• were discussed in the New York Times, and in journal clubs across
the world
• Clancy et al. crystallized a watershed moment…
New Stuff

16. Plus ça change, plus c'est la
même chose? But…
1. The focus of activism around women in STEM has
changed from increasing pipeline intake, to increasing
retention.
2. Title IX, old USA legislation, is being used in new ways
to address sexual harassment of Women in STEM by
senior male faculty (see my SWEEET 2016 talk —
google Bazely Slideshare). UK has Athena SWAN &
Australia has SAGE Pilot.
3. Social Media is game-changing in connecting previously
isolated Women in STEM activists and their allies.
New Stuff

17. The Social Media Game-Changer
• creates the critical mass of
women in STEM and allies
imagined by Mildred
Dresselhaus
• overcomes isolation
• allows networking and the
sharing of stories
Take action

18. Network to find allies
• like Laurier University
doctoral student, Eden
Hennessey
• her sociology research
examines barriers faced by
Women in STEM through
a photographic art lens
• #DistractinglyHonest &
#DistractinglySexist are
travelling exhibits
Take action

19. Take action

20. Organize an International Ada
Lovelace Day event on campus
• a friendly STEM librarian will help
you
• see my 6-step how-to:
• http://dawnbazely.lab.yorku.ca/20
16/07/six-steps-to-making-your-
very-own-ada-lovelace-day-in-fall-
2016/
• We posted this year’s talk by Prof.
Bryan Gaensler, on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=8JB9BMIE6WI
Take action

21. Participate in a Wikipedia
Editathon
• find a friendly STEM
librarian to help you
• there’s lots of advice and
it’s easier than it looks
• That’s Judy Myers from
slide 7:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wik
i/Judith_H._Myers
Take action

22. Take the Harvard Implicit
Bias Test
• To help you to overcome
your confirmation bias
• I did
• I discovered that I’m racist
& sexist
• I unconsciously defer to
white males as authority
figures
• YES, ME 😟😳😱😤🤔
Take action

23. Educate senior STEM academics &
get them to be Active Bystanders
• students cannot be expected to bear the burden of change
• senior academics must create the space for the conversation and be
held accountable for not taking appropriate action
• https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/academic-gossip-network-fails-punish-senior-scientists
Take action

25. This includes nominating
women for prestigious awards
Congratulations, Imogen!
Take action

26. TAKE HOMES
1. The focus of activism by women in STEM has
changed from increasing intake to the pipeline, to
increasing retention (Clancy et al. address this).
2. Title IX, old USA legislation, is being used in new
ways to address sexual harassment of Women in
STEM by senior male faculty. UK has Athena
SWAN & Australia has SAGE Pilot.
3. Social Media is connecting previously isolated
Women in STEM and their allies.

27. Thank you to Kate McPherson