“The Fact That the Author Was Male Instead of Female Provided for an Objective Opinion”: Implicit Bias in the Classroom

Background

While gender inequality has lessened over the past several decades in the United States (Fate-Dixon & Coontz, 2017; Hegewisch & DuMonthier, 2016), it persists in all aspects of social life. Gender inequality is reflected in ways that are observable and measurable (e.g., wages, legislation) and reflected in other more difficult-to-measure and observe ways (e.g., attitudes, biases, stereotypes). This paper focuses on an activity intended to generate thought and conversation on the difficult-to-measure and often unconscious ways in which gender inequality exists and is reproduced. Gender bias is a form of discrimination, which can be unintentional, unconscious, and even justified/internalized as fair (Auspurg, Hinz, & Sauer, 2017). Gender bias has consequences related to employment, pay, health, and housing, and many other areas; and has the potential to reinforce existing inequalities. This unconscious discrimination is sometimes referred to as implicit bias.

Gender bias is a heavily researched area, especially related to the workplace. Rice and Barth (2017) examined traditional gender role stereotypes in hiring decisions, with applicants more likely to be hired for traditionally female or male occupations. Sipe, Johnson, and Fisher (2009) considered perceptions of gender discrimination in the workforce among college students and found that students anticipated they would enter a workplace free of gender discrimination with gender discrimination not being a major concern. Gender bias is important to study in university populations in part because students anticipate equality upon entry into the labor market.