“I never am really
satisfied that I
understand anything;
because understand it
well as I may, my
comprehension can
only be an
infinitesimal fraction of
all I want to
understand”
Ada Lovelace
Women in Science and
Engineering Topics
November 13, 2014
BME200
Outline
• Linda Werner - Adjunct Prof in Computer Science
• Adrienne Harrell - Director of Undergraduate Student Affairs
• Lauren Lui - PhD Candidate BME, WiSE President Emerita
• Contexting
• Clip of video on unconscious bias
• Panel discussion (each person presents)
• Open for questions and discussion
Satya Nadella
Microsoft CEO
How should women ask for a raise?
“It’s not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually
give you the right raises as you go along.” He added, “That might be one of the initial ‘super powers,’
that quite frankly, women (who) don’t ask for a raise have. It’s good karma. It will come back.”
Nadella later apologized and started a diversity initiative within
Microsoft.
Generalizations...
xkcd.com
Why is diversity important?
• Do you know the percentage of women receiving engineering degrees?
• Why don’t more women enter the physical sciences, engineering and
computing-related fields? and why is this weird?
• Why is it important to have a 50/50 ratio of women/men in STEM fields?
Why is diversity important?
• Why don’t more women enter the physical sciences, engineering and
computing-related fields? and why is this weird?
• Why is it important to have a 50/50 ratio of women in STEM fields?
• Diversity for the workforce
• Gender-balanced teams do a better job
• consider airbag safety for children and women
• If the field doesn’t reflect the demographics in the population, the field isn’t
drawing from the full talent pool possible
Slides from ISEE
Video: Presentation by Dr. Brian Welle
Google Ventures - Sept 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLjFTHTgEVU
Unconscious Bias
Methods for combating unconscious bias (from Dr. Welle)
1. Articulate structure for success
2. Collect Data
3. Evaluating subtle messages
4. Hold everyone accountable
Methods for combating unconscious bias (from Dr. Welle)
1. Articulate structure for success
1. Police Chief study - preference of school smarts vs street smarts
2. What does success look like?
3. How do you evaluate someone else’s ideas?
2. Collect Data
3. Evaluating subtle messages
4. Hold everyone accountable
Study: Hiring among professors
• “Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students”
• Moss-Racusin et al 2012 PNAS
• Identical resumes, different names
Methods for combating unconscious bias (from Dr. Welle)
1. Articulate structure for success
2. Collect Data
1. Google Doodles 2013 - only 17% of birthdays celebrated were of women
2. Project Implicit
3. How do mentor?
3. Evaluating subtle messages
4. Hold everyone accountable
Study: faculty mentoring
• Faculty more likely to respond to
Caucasian males for mentoring
• Milkman et al 2014, What Happens
Before? A Field Experiment Exploring
How Pay and Representation
Differentially Shape Bias on the
Pathway into Organizations
• Emailed 6,500 professors from 89
disciplines at the top 259 schools,
pretending to be students. Only
variable was the sender's name
• As Milkman told NPR, professors
"ignored requests from women and
minorities at a higher rate than
requests from white males."
Methods for combating unconscious bias (from Dr. Welle)
1. Articulate structure for success
2. Collect Data
3. Evaluating subtle messages
1. Microaggressions - e.g. time we spend talking with others, decor
2. Questioning, interrupting during presentations
3. Conference speakers - Jonathan Eisen protest
4. At Google, 15-20 conference rooms named after scientists, only 1 named
after a woman
4. Hold everyone accountable
Microinequities
• “Silent Technical Privilege” by Philip Guo
• http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2014/01/programmer_priv
ilege_as_an_asian_male_computer_science_major_everyone_gave.html
Methods for combating unconscious bias (from Dr. Welle)
1. Articulate structure for success
2. Collect Data
3. Evaluating subtle messages
4. Hold everyone accountable
1.Question first impressions
2.Empower everyone to call out bias
Internal barriers
• Impostor Syndrome
• “I feel like I’m fooling everyone”
• “It’s just a fluke that I got that award”
• Sheryl Sandberg
• Ted: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18uDutylDa4
• At Grace Hopper: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMVCSrm65kg
• 9.20 (numbers), 19.00, 23(ambition gap)