Unconscious gender bias in academia: From PhD students to professors

Abstract

In an academic landscape where female physicists are still strongly underrepresented, underlying causes like unconscious gender bias deserve specific attention. Members of academia are often not aware of their intrinsic, hence unconscious, biases; this gap in awareness can have negative effects on students and staff at all career levels. At the Queen’s University Belfast, I have developed and conducted a workshop on unconscious gender bias awareness at the School of Mathematics and Physics. The first installment of the workshop was attended by 63 members of the school, among them 26 academic staff (lecturer level and above). Participants attended an informational talk followed by a discussion session and then took part in the Harvard Implicit Association Test, which measures how strongly participants associate the natural sciences with the male or female gender. The participants self-reported their results and their previous expectations; a group discussion followed. Here I present the observed magnitude of unconscious gender bias and summarise the discussion points of the participants. The outcomes that bias can have on the success of physics students, as well as on the careers of physicists in an academic context, will be highlighted. Putting the results into context, I discuss steps toward making physics a level playing field for all genders.