Statistics don’t lie. If you are working in IT, you’re most likely a male. Nearly all of corporate diversity reports show that Silicon Valley is a male dominated industry.
The tech giant, Google, pointed out that this plague is the effect of a shared unconscious bias in everyone’s minds. Unconscious bias happens “naturally” and is not only confined to the work environment but also our daily lives. These biases are shaped by experiences, cultural norms, and allow us to filter information and make quick decisions. However, we've all been unknowingly skewed by these shortcuts.
Google has always been at the cutting edge of innovation when it comes to technology, employee relations and social issues, Once again, Google has stepped in as a leader by exposing the pervasiveness of unconscious bias. They are attempting to fix this demographic gap within their walls by making the work environment more appealing to minorities such as women. There is a growing body of research surrounding unconscious bias and how it can be prevented from negatively impacting our decision making and hampering the motives of others.
However, this obstacle should be tackled early on in life. The difference of gender roles in society is mainly forged during the childhood of individuals. Programs that specifically target splinter groups ,such as females, to pursue in the science and technology industry should be initiated during the most sensitive period of one's life, K-12. The goal of this is to identify how unconscious bias is affecting our outlook, decisions, and interactions from the get go and prevent it from burgeoning.
ALL HEIL DAVID
I understand what you're trying to say but I'm going to have to disagree with your post. Although it may be smart to tackle on the idea of bias during our childhood, it will never work. No matter what, we are forced to see the difference between our genders and races. The article also states that there is always a little hidden bias in all of us, so even if we tried to manifest a "perfect" unbiased person, they will eventually find a way to think otherwise.
ReplyDeleteSo you are saying that no matter what we do, the situation will never change?
DeleteAlthough Aivan presented a good argument, I'll have to disagree. Yes, bias will always be present in our society and as humans, we will continue to place greater importance in the flaws and faults of others, rather than their assets and the good they do.
DeleteA huge factor that is affecting (and will continue to effect) society is our social media and television. Currently, our older gen society seems to emphasize sex, drugs, and alcohol- seen in Keeping up with the Kardashians and Jersey Shores.
Right now, children's shows are already demonstrating a huge contrast- implementing good practices and teaching children to be commpassionate towards others. Children are learning to not be as racist towards others in shows like Elmo, so why can't we incorporate that knowledge in other areas of bias?
Humankind will always aim towards that "perfect" human being, and although we might not accomplish it anytime soon, every day we can strive to reach a little higher, and impact another life. Our nature balances out, one side wanting to blame others and find faults and the other finding the good in people. Even though right now most people find it easier to point out the flaws and mistakes of others, by influencing the younger generation to notice the good in people, we can better balance our internal bias.
Aivan is correct in pointing out that we are "forced to see the difference between our genders and races" in that there will always be a physical difference between all groups of people. Though there will always be bias in humans, it is possible to lessen the effects of this bias. By emphasizing equality of gender and races in children from a young age, as David pointed out, it may be possible to create a more tolerant society. You must account for the groups that are unwilling to change their beliefs, such as the bible-extremist groups of the American South or organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan (a bit of an extreme, yes, though it must be accounted for), however. Such groups slow or prevent the creation of an ideal, bias-free society, though there will always be outliers... I digress. The process of creating a tolerant society may be a slow one, but it is becoming more apparent and hopefully more accepted.
DeleteI like your idea of trying to tackle unconscious bias from when we are young but I have to agree with Aivan Calderon ' comment. Even if we teach kids at a young age about the difference in gender roles, it may never work. Kids are exposed to much media, tv, and other adults as well in which they see differences of gender roles themselves.
ReplyDeleteThen the media would need to change too.
DeleteI agree with Mrs. Mathews. I found your response to the article interesting, and I liked your perspective on this problem which opened up a bigger issue, the determination of the roles of females and males at a young age (promoted through media). I just watched a commercial promoting Nerf guns, featuring only male children, having fun, shooting each other. Another commercial I watched recently, was promoting an Easy-bake oven, where a group of girls were having fun, cooking. Why can't boys cook, or girls play with Nerf guns? Your response to the article really brought my attention to the issue, and made me realize an important step to changing society, is to change the media.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Aivan's and Joseph's comments. Although tackling the issue from a young age in a good idea, how could it be done? Would it be done in school or on TV or both. Either way, I think what influences kids the most are their parents. If the parents are racist, chances are the child is going to grow up a little racist too and if the parent is for equality and diversity, chances are that the child will end up being the same way. It is a good idea,people develop most of their views when they are young, but how are we going to teach children that the world should be an equal and fair place.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your points and i agree very much so with your point of tackling these issues from a young age. Posts I've read so far have talked about how the large male numbers in Google and other tech industries is affected by a larger pool of male applicants however doesn't this just show that women are not given the same drive and thought to have the same skills of many men? I believe the issue can be tackled with younger ages, all it could really take is to have teachers influence their young girls or a parent to show his or her little daughter something more than make up and dresses. Just because it seems difficult doesn't mean there shouldn't be an effort. If more girls are pushed in this direction from a young age and people can work through biases then the problem of little diversity in these businesses should be corrected.
ReplyDeleteI believe your statement that "However, this obstacle should be tackled early on in life." is true. However, I believe a more efficient way to solve this problem is through parents raising their children in a more non biased fashion. Although I do believe it is true that everyone has a slight amount of bias in them, they can teach future generations to be less biased. And throughout generations the amount of bias would begin to decrease.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with all the points made both in the post and in the comments about how gender roles should be dismantled early on.
ReplyDeleteGender roles affect so many aspects of our society. I've been seeing a lot of comments on other blogs on how the reason why there are less women being hired is because there are less who apply into the tech field to begin with. While this is true, if we look deeper into the question of why not as many women favor math-based jobs as men, it is more often than not because they were taught that math and science are more "masculine" and "not fitting for women."
Children are often conditioned to think this way by the people and environment around them--for example, through the toys they are given to play with. For instance, Lego recently released a set of female scientist figures after receiving a letter from a 7-year-old girl criticizing how the female models only "sit at home, go to the beach, and shop," while the male characters "saved people, had jobs, even swam with sharks." Even to popular children's toys do gender roles apply, and these things can ultimately change a child's career choice.