Online tutorial: Gender Bias in the appointment process
What is Gender Bias?
Beyond the legal enshrinement of equal opportunities, the careers of women and men are influenced by gender-related stereotypes, whether these arise consciously or unconsciously. In particular, the barriers in people’s minds – whether in one’s own mind, or in that of HR managers or colleagues – lead to unequal treatment when assessing women and men during an appointment process.
Background
The reason lies in the acceptance of traditional gender roles. This leads to intuitive assumptions that manifest as stereotypical notions about how differently, for example, the careers of women and men in academia develop. In doing so, the wide range of factors that influence a career path in academia is often overlooked. This online tutorial, developed by UNIFY, identifies three major areas in which gender bias often plays a decisive role, provides information on these areas and offers recommendations for action. The information is based on the latest findings from psychological and business management research, as well as on the applicable legal framework.
Let’s get started: Find out – when, how and where you like
All three modules follow a standard structure: following an introduction to the relevant topic, the underlying problem is described. Individual aspects are then examined in more detail, and the impact of gender bias in these contexts is illustrated. Finally, four recommendations are provided for each module to help prevent gender-related bias. The modules can be accessed individually, independently of one another, or worked through online in sequence. A narrator guides learners through each module. The modules can also be downloaded as PDF files.
Module 1: Individual career paths
Module 1 provides information on intuitive mental assumptions relating to the gender of applicants, which influence staff selection in recruitment procedures.
Module 2: Assessment of academic performance
In addition to the assessment of a CV (Module 1), the evaluation of academic achievements is prone to gender bias. Gender-related bias arises whenever the criteria used to assess performance and capability in research and teaching are overshadowed by preconceptions regarding suitability, such as the gender of the applicants.
Module 3: Academic and cross-disciplinary skills
This module examines a potential gender bias that may arise in connection with academic and interdisciplinary skills. Finally, a number of recommendations are put forward to help avoid this gender bias.
Link to the self-assessment test
If you’d like to test for yourself beforehand just how much our behaviour is influenced by prejudice, you can take the Harvard test on the impact of attitudes on decision-making.
Reading recommendation
If you do not have time to complete the online tutorial at the moment, we recommend reading the interesting article ‘Scientists of the world speak up for equality’, Nature, Vol. 495, March 2013, pp. 35–38. Available online via the link.