Measuring & Addressing Nellie Tran, Meg A. Bond, Meg Sobkowicz- - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Subtle Gender Biases: Measuring & Addressing

Nellie Tran, Meg A. Bond, Meg Sobkowicz- Kline, Michelle Haynes, & Julie Chen University of Massachusetts-Lowell

Workshop Workshop Overview Overview

• Introduction
• Making Microaggressions Visible &

Measurable

• Current Intervention Work
• Workshop Intervention Ideas

Definition Definition

MICROAGGRESSIONS

• Subtle, automatic, often

unconscious

• Often “unintentional”
• Fleeting or ambiguous
• Take many forms
• Behavioral
• Verbal

Microaggressions are not…

• - ISMS
• Blatant acts with immediate impact
• Not a quality of the perpetrator
• Labels for people/groups

Yet = Part of larger racist and sexist structures

Per Personal Experi sonal Experiences ences of

• f

Micr Microaggr

• aggressions

essions

• Microaggressions you have experienced or

witnessed

• Write on post-it notes.

– 1 microaggression per post-it

• Stick on the wall
• Take a moment to read the experiences of

colleagues

Impact Impact

Microaggressions

• Subtle, automatic, often

unconscious

• Often “unintentional”
• Fleeting or ambiguous
• Can take many forms
• Behavioral
• Verbal

Psychological Impact Binds Opportunity costs

Micr Microaggr

• aggressions

essions are Difficu are Difficult lt to Identify to Identify

• Affect victims even when they don’t

consciously recognize it (e.g., Cheryan &

Monin, 2005)

• The more subtle the bias, the stronger the

effect on the victim (Nguyen & Ryan, 2008).

• Often invisible to perpetrators, victims, &

bystanders

• Therefore, the Subtle Gender Bias Index…

Subtle Subtle Gender Bias Gender Bias Index Index (SG (SGBI) Validation BI) Validation Process Process

Step 1 – Qualitative Interviews

19 w/ STEM women at 2 universities

Step 2 – Item Development & Refinement

Research Team of 4 929 items created for events coded as bias Consultation & refinement with (1) social science experts and (2) STEM women academics

Step 3 – Quantitative Validation (in progress)

111 item online-survey validation with academic women across all academic disciplines

Step 3 Step 3 Index T Index Trimming P rimming Process rocess

• Exploratory Factor Analysis of 111 items
• Scree plot indicated 3-4 factors
• Retained items with factor loadings <.4
• Analyses currently include 654 women

faculty*

• RESULTING IN 51 ITEM INDEX

Subtle Subtle Gender Bias Gender Bias Index Index (SG (SGBI) Subscales BI) Subscales

• 1. Work Gender Bias

– 17 items - personal, interpersonal, & departmental

• 2. Institutional Gender Bias

– 13 items - structures, programs, & policies

• 3. Resources & Support Inequities

– 13 items - differential workplace resources, mentoring, & advice

• 4. Abilities & Relationship Biases

– 8 items - questioning of one’s ability & non-collegial relationships

Putting in Putting into to context context

• Composition
• Policies
• Leadership

Micro-

aggressions

Organizational

Context

Three P Three Points of In

• ints of Intervention

tervention

Organizational Context

Psychological Impact

Binds

Opportunity costs

1 2 3

Micro-

aggressions

Cur Current rent Work Work to Addr to Address ess Micr Microaggr

• aggressions

essions

• 50/50 Lectures
• Faculty Development Committee
• IDEA communities
• Focus Groups
• Collaboration with Deans

50/50 Lect 50/50 Lecture S ure Series eries

Notable scientists give two-part lectures on technical and research interests and their career paths (e.g., navigating family commitments, challenges overcome, influence of mentors)

Benefits to faculty host

• Access to established

collaborators

• Broader professional visibility

(internal & external)

• Mentors outside University

50/50 Lect 50/50 Lecture: Outcomes ure: Outcomes

Benefits to institution

• Microaggression awareness
• Cultural/academic bridging of gaps
• External visibility

Faculty Faculty Development Development Committee Committee

• Senior faculty group convened to address

institutional hurdles for young faculty

• Programs, e.g.:

– Enlightened Bites – Training – Promotion and Tenure workshops

Inter InterDisciplinary Disciplinary Exchange & Exchange & Advancement Advancement (IDEA (IDEA) ) Communities Communities

• Learning communities of faculty who are

diverse (e.g., discipline, gender, race/ethnicity, and rank)

• Faculty convene around a common topical area
• Focus on advancing the individual scholarly

agendas of members

• Include coaching for navigating the university

and work-life issues

Workshop Workshop Intervention Intervention Ideas Ideas

• Groups of 3-5
• How might the SGBI be helpful in

intervention efforts?

– For assessment-feedback cycles? – To frame or support an intervention? – Other creative uses of the measure?

• Each group ~ 2-3 ideas

Than Thank You k You

Nellie Tran, Ph.D. ntran@mail.sdsu.edu Julie Chen, Ph.D. Julie_Chen@uml.edu Meg Bond, Ph.D. Meg_Bond@uml.edu Meg Sobkowicz Kline margaret_sobkowiczkline@uml.edu Michelle Haynes Michelle_Haynes@uml.edu

Microaggressions Microaggressions Defined Defined

the commonplace daily verbal, behavioral and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial, gender, sexual-orientation, and religious slights and insults to the target person or group (Sue, Capodilupo, et al., 2007).

Microaggressions Microaggressions Management Management

• 1. Learn from constant vigilance of your own

biases & fears.

• 2. Interact with people who differ from your race,

culture & ethnicity.

• 3. Don't be defensive.
• 4. Be open to discussing how your own attitudes

& biases may have hurt others or revealed your

• wn biases.
• 5. Be an ally. Stand personally against everyday

biases and injustices.

Steps to Steps to Responding as Responding as Microaggressor Microaggressor

• 1. Acknowledge your role in hurting the
• ther person
• 2. Acknowledge why it is a microaggression
• 3. Consider and mention what you will do

differently

• 4. Check your defensiveness. Remember

that it is not about you.

Coping with Coping with Microaggressions Microaggressions

• 1. Check with social support network.
• 2. Work on externalization.
• 3. Try to be gentle with yourself
• 4. Know what you can and cannot control
• 5. Understand that the effects last a long

time

• 6. Try to give people a second chance

“I learned early that sometimes being a software engineer is death by 1000 paper cuts….. The cuts started early. I’m discouraged and humiliated in math classes throughout my school years …I still get anxious doing math in front of others despite being good at it… My college classes have next to no women in them. A professor makes creepy comments about “geeky girls” … Classmates don’t take me seriously ... Four years of paper cuts. Nearly every technical conference I attend has at least one person with a microphone making a comment along the lines of ”my wife/girlfriend doesn’t understand technology”... clearly intended to be a joke that the audience will identify with….But for those of us who [are not male], it’s a regular signal that we’re not considered … don’t

• belong. The heavy drinking makes some of us feel unsafe. A paper cut for every

conference. Someone in authority pats me on the head to dismiss an argument I’m making about something at work. As though I was a child – a thing he’d be unlikely to do with a male

• coworker. I’m asked to take notes in meetings where I am a technical lead … male

coworkers say that front-end development isn’t real software engineering. I suspect I’m paid less than male colleagues (perhaps paranoia, perhaps real – it’s a hard thing to verify). A thousand paper cuts for the working world.”

Blog: http://juliepagano.tumblr.com/post/46206589124/my-experiences-in-tech-death-by-1000-paper-cuts