The news article “Bias Persists for Women of Science, a Study Finds” by Kenneth Chang (2012) generally talks about the biasness persistence of women. In American Universities, it is clear that female undergraduates are regarded as incompetent compared to their male counterparts despite having similarities in skills and accomplishments. In addition, the article also states that a study found that university professors had less impact, especially on mentoring women or jobs. This research paper will explore the article and give an analysis of how it represents the original scientific findings and its shortcomings.
The journal article seeks to investigate whether the university members’ sageness of the student competence can aid in explaining why there are lower chances of them hiring a female for the position of laboratory manager. This was in an attempt to determine whether the entire university expressed any form of bias against the female students. Nonetheless, the bias was extremely pervasive, reflecting subconscious cultural influences rather than overt or deliberate discrimination (Chang, 2012). The female professors in the American University were also biased against the women students, just like their male colleagues. The level of unfairness has no connection or relation to the age, sex, tenure status, and the teaching field of the professors.
In addition, an examination of the role of the faculty employees’ existing bias against women was also completed. On the findings and results, it was noticed that both the men and ladies working on the faculty seemed to be judging and perceiving females as less worthy and incompetent of being employed compared to their male counterparts (Moss-Racusin et al., 2012). The pervasive prejudice level also led to the employed women receiving less mentoring and salaries due to the discrimination. The moderation results also played a key role in portraying the preexisting form of biasness against women that critically undermined their insight and treatment of the female. They also indicated that further discrimination and bias would negatively harm several women within the academic science field.
The news article also represented the true and original findings as in the journal article. It was noted that the female members of the faculty shared several similarities to their male counterparts as they both favored the male students. The biasness of the professors and faculty members was independent of issues such as gender, tenure, and age. Additionally, scientific discipline is a clear indication that the bias was unintentional; hence, it arises from preexisting cultural stereotypes (Moss-Racusin et al., 2012). It is also clear that despite expressing, accepting, and embracing the emerging female scientists, both men and women are still affected by the existing stereotypes about women as incompetent. This translates into biases in student evaluation and mentoring.
Nonetheless, despite the article looking at the existing bias, especially women being perceived as incompetent, it seems that it has several shortcomings and challenges. It did not extensively look at the modern sexism scale and did not offer solutions to curb and reduce the biasness level. The scale is regarded as one of the appropriate and acceptable measures of existing sex attitudes in the context of reliability and the ability to predict gender-related political behaviors and attitudes (Moss-Racusin et al., 2012). The article would have generally talked about modern sexism and its role in changing how people perceive and portray women in modern society. It advocates for both males and females having equal opportunities to reach the same levels of achievement.
In conclusion, it is clear that the decrease of women in academic science is a major sign that there has been a form of wasted opportunity and shuttering dreams of the best potential scientists. Despite women beginning entering the science field over the past years, this does not portray that bias has completely come to an end. It is also clear that gender bias has restricted women’s full engagement in science.
References
Chang, K. (2012). Bias persists for women of science, a study finds. The New York Times. Web.
Moss-Racusin, C. A., Dovidio, J. F., Brescoll, V. L., Graham, M. J., & Handelsman, J. (2012). The science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(41), 16474-16479. Web.