Atlhough much has improved over the last 50 years, women and minorities in academia continue to have a significantly different experience than their male counter parts. Women face a variety of hurdles --- greater career/family tradeoffs, more service, devalued service, exclusion from professional networks/citation cartels, informal bias, etc. Several recent studies have added "gendered language" to this list of hurdles.
Most professional women are aware, or at least have been suspicious, that their behavior is interpretted and described differently than their male colleagues. In evaluations, words like "bossy" are used to describe the behavior of women, while men are described as "good leaders" or "take charge". A new tool created by Benjamin Schmidt allows one to visualize differences in word choice used to describe men and women in Rate My Professor evaluations. While not all words have clear splits, many do.
Word choice is both a manifestation and a means of perpetuating gender bias. Society and culture influence gender stereotypes --- women should be nutruring, supportive, and submissive --- as well as the language we choose to use to describe individuals. These language differences/biases are evident in many places, including letters of recommendation. A recent study found that letters of recommendation for men included more "standout" adjectives and focused more on individual ability than letters of reo
Most professional women are aware, or at least have been suspicious, that their behavior is interpretted and described differently than their male colleagues. In evaluations, words like "bossy" are used to describe the behavior of women, while men are described as "good leaders" or "take charge". A new tool created by Benjamin Schmidt allows one to visualize differences in word choice used to describe men and women in Rate My Professor evaluations. While not all words have clear splits, many do.
Word choice is both a manifestation and a means of perpetuating gender bias. Society and culture influence gender stereotypes --- women should be nutruring, supportive, and submissive --- as well as the language we choose to use to describe individuals. These language differences/biases are evident in many places, including letters of recommendation. A recent study found that letters of recommendation for men included more "standout" adjectives and focused more on individual ability than letters of reo
RSS Feed