Someone posted this on a social media, and this made me think.
A few days ago, a good friend of mine asked me ‘how many of the note-takers in meetings are female?’ I am assigned to quite time-consuming minute-making duties by two separate institutions in my roles, and I see that definitely more women are tasked to notetaking than men in my academic circles. There are more female support staff, and definitely more female part-time staff at the university I work for now.
My friend also asked me ‘if you are to ask someone to take notes of a meeting, who do you ask? Do you ask female students more than male students?’ Thinking about that, for me, is in fact about the same, or maybe a bit more on male than female students.
But her questions triggered my thoughts. Are there any unconscious gender assumptions that hinder female students learning and pursuing careers? Yes, a lot. Having many women and girls being in their expected gender roles, are there any areas where insufficient considerations for female students hinder their learning and pursuing careers? Yes, a lot.
This post is not to say anything new. It is just to remind us to be mindful of the possible bias.
aikiharahunt 