Implicit Bias: Fixing the System at the Administrative Level WOMEN IN STEM FORUM, LACCEI 2013 Autumn Reed – Office of the Provost, University of Maryland Baltimore County, UMBC ADVANCE I. Definitions A. Explicit Bias-Stated clearly and in detail, leaving no room for confusion or doubt, purposeful. B. Implicit (Unconscious) Bias-Hidden or unconscious, not plainly expressed, and/or easily recognized, everybody has them. C. Examples of Commonly Held Beliefs About Women in S&E *Women are not as good in mathematics as men *The underrepresentation of women in STEM is a function of how many women are qualified to enter these positions *Women are not as competitive as men and just do not want jobs in academia *Women faculty are less productive than male faculty *Women are more interested in family than in careers (Beyond Bias and Barriers, 2007, S-4) II. Empirical Studies of How Implicit Bias Operates in Recruitment Process A. Gender 1) Trix and Psenka (2003) study of 300 recommendation letters for medical school faculty found : *Letters written for women are shorter. *Provide minimal assurance (refer to compassion, teaching, and effort not their achievements, research, and ability). *Portray women as students and teachers rather than researchers and professionals. 2) Steinpreis et al., (1999) study of gender bias in CV evaluation with 118 male and female participants evaluating the same CV with a randomly assigned male or female name found: *Both male and female evaluators gave the male applicants better evaluations in teaching, service, and research. *More likely to hire male over female applicant. B. Race 1) Bertrand and Mullainathan (2004) in a comparative study of applications with African-American sounding names and white sounding names found: *Applicants with African-American sounding names had to sending 15 resumes to get a callback as opposed to 10 resumes for a white sounding name. *White names yielded as many callbacks as an additional 8 years of experience. III. UMBC ADVANCE Recruitment of Women in STEM A. UMBC STEM Women Pre-ADVANCE 1999-20 ADVANCE 2003-30 Height of ADVANCE 2010-47 Now Fall 2012-42 1