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If the textbook you use in your classroom features more male authors, add more notable women authors.

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An unequal treatment in opportunity and expectations due to attitudes based on gender.

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While our school district offers a Robotics Club for 5th and 6th grade students, the majority of students in the club are boys.

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Don't call on the first hands that are raised, wait for the 4th, 5th, or even 6th hand, so you can get some variety of students.

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Our Robotics Club adviser noticed that when she asks teachers for recommendations for club participants, they overwhelmingly recommend boys.

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In your discussions in the class make sure you talk to both boys and girls equally.

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If any of the books, and/or textbooks include sexist notions, call them out.

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If you want to know how you interact with students bring in a colleague to observe or videotape.

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Most people have unconscious biases, stereotypes formed through their experiences, their culture, and their education.

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Your unconscious belief system leads you to think in a certain way, that after some time, seems correct to you. Unconscious gender bias makes you ignore the ability of one person and start hindering it with the pre-conceived notions that society fed you. Some of these superficial biases that I've observed include:

Women can't do business because of their personal commitments.

Women let their business and clients suffer because of their emotions.

Women's emotions dictate their decision-making ability.

Women are bad with numbers, hence they can't project the ROI of an investment.

Women entrepreneurs tend to avoid the technical aspect of the business.

Women will leave their professional careers when they get married or have a child.

Challenging the unconscious bias so it doesn't affect your decision

Getting rid of the unconscious bias is not cookie-cutting in real life. After realizing that you may be making unconsciously biased decisions, the next step is to challenge it and start questioning it. In the same way as questioning others, you can question your own unconscious assumptions and biases as well.

Whenever you notice yourself making an assumption without the evidence to support it, remember to ask yourself the following questions:

If the answer is no to any of these questions, reconsider your thought and trace this assumption or association to challenge it for future.

Gender parity and unbiased inclusion for the better world

At Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, we envision a diverse and inclusive world for all. We also believe that it's high time we all start questioning our gender bias and walk towards a future that is free of gender discrimination because when you bring diversity and inclusion to the table, it benefits all.

While programs at Miller Center equip both men and women with tools and practices that help them become successful social entrepreneurs, we support more social enterprises' focus on women and girls as customers and beneficiaries. Why? Because we reckon that conversation-led-actions around gender-bias should be started by stakeholders and conveners like us and this is why we also put our trust on women economic empowerment for a sustainable future. Our new affinity group of women-led social enterprises in our Global Social Benefit Institute (GSBI®) online accelerator program is one step toward the same direction. Applications for our 2019 GSBIⓇ programs are being accepted through November 2, 2018, and we encourage women-led social enterprises to take a step forward and apply.

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Recognizing and Questioning Unconscious Gender Bias

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Every day we make decisions that are unconsciously biased. This means that you don't realize the moment you make the decision that you are being biased. The decision can be a reflection of multiple reasons or situations which may or may not be your fault.

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Review a unit of research about gender equality, and unconscious bias, and review them with your class.

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Unconscious bias can be a problem in education if teachers limit student opportunities because of this bias.

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First Person

During these summer months away from the classroom, we teachers are readying ourselves to embrace our next opportunity to make a difference. We're attending workshops and writing curriculum (and of course binge-watching Netflix).

The beauty of teaching is that each year we get another chance to do things better, to get things right. So each year we eagerly prepare our classrooms and our lesson plans to ensure that they're better than the previous year.

We post rules, hang a "welcome" greeting on the door, write a neatly color-coded agenda on the board-and we're ready. When the greatly anticipated first day of school arrives, we stand by our doors smiling and greeting students as they enter the classroom.

That's when it starts to happen. In these moments, as students mingle and shyly interact with one another, we the teachers begin to make the very crucial observations that will affect our perceptions, and thus inform our expectations, of each student that school year.

Research has shown that before teachers even have a conversation with a student, they have already formulated a number of opinions based on that student's race, appearance, and other factors -and begun to form a certain set of expectations. How is this possible, why does it happen, and what does this mean for our teaching?

Underestimating Students' Potential

Regardless of how much we may like to think of ourselves as progressive educators, the reality is that our subconscious is at work. We, too, are studying the every move of our students: their dress, their personal grooming, their hair style, their use of language, and their mannerisms. Admitting it may be uncomfortable, but almost all of us have looked at a student at one time or another and thought, solely based on their appearance, "That kid is going to be someone," or "that kid is going to make my life miserable," or "that kid should pick up his pants; that's so disrespectful."

These subconscious thoughts and feelings are known as implicit biases. Whether our perceptions are positive or negative, they have an impact; they determine expectations, and these expectations dictate how we teach. Studies show that teacher expectations are closely linked to student achievement and success.

In my 15 years of teaching, I have been flooded with implicit biases; after all, that is not something we can control. We can, however, control how we deal with and respond to our biases. Our implicit biases, then, should only be a source of shame if we choose to ignore them.

One time when I struggled with implicit bias has especially stuck with me. I first met Anthony in mid-October of last year. He walked into my classroom three minutes late wearing an oversized shirt, slicked-back longish hair, and baggy jeans that hung well below the waist, revealing his underpants if not for his shirt. I greeted Anthony, feigned a smile, and asked what class he had been in last year.

Inwardly, I only half-listened to his response as the other part of me was already making assumptions: He must be behind, he'll never catch up, he's probably a troublemaker. Anthony had not even taken a seat in my classroom, yet already I had assigned him a set of not-so-high expectations simply because of his tardiness and his appearance.

But after a lesson on figurative language, he began to rap complex and beautiful lyrics in English and Spanish as he picked up his backpack and began walking out of my classroom. I asked about the artist, and he smiled proudly and responded that the lyrics were his own. Then he quickly added, "I surprised you, didn't I?"

He was right; he did surprise me. I had let my implicit biases go unchecked. Fortunately, Anthony reminded me to check myself. That single interaction was an indication that I had clearly underestimated his intelligence, potential, and his own academic expectations.

Ignoring Bias Furthers Inequity

Not all kids are as confident or as vocal as Anthony; actually, most students will not call you out. Most students will instead internalize your low or lowered expectations and your lack of confidence in them or their academic ability. Over time, this internalization results in low academic performance and apathy. More often than not, if we raise expectations, students will rise to the occasion; the opposite is true as well.

I was wrong about Anthony. He wasn't behind, and he was no troublemaker. He made daily contributions to the class, and his creativity fueled that of his peers while it inspired me. I was fortunate enough in Anthony's case to minimize the damage, but how many other times have I unwittingly allowed my implicit biases to inform my teaching and my relationships with students?

These biases are ever-present, and as such they require constant monitoring. Ignoring our implicit biases guarantees that we further impoverish the already poor or marginalized student. As educators, we must be mindful of not just how we teach students, but how we approach them, how we talk to them, and how we convey our academic expectations for each of them.

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Why Teachers Must Fight Their Own Implicit Biases

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First Person During these summer months away from the classroom, we teachers are readying ourselves to embrace our next opportunity to make a difference. We're attending workshops and writing curriculum (and of course binge-watching Netflix). The beauty of teaching is that each year we get another chance to do things better, to get things right.

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Some ideas on how to minimize gender bias in our teaching practice and curriculum.

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gender bias

n. unequal treatment in employment opportunity (such as promotion, pay, benefits and privileges), and expectations due to attitudes based on the sex of an employee or group of employees. Gender bias can be a legitimate basis for a lawsuit under anti-discrimination statutes.

gender bias
noun gender prejudice, one-sidedness, partiality, partisanship, prejudice, sexual discrimination, unequal treatment, unfair treatment, unfairness, unlawful treatment of a protected class
Associated concepts: employment law

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n. unequal treatment in employment opportunity (such as promotion, pay, benefits and privileges), and expectations due to attitudes based on the sex of an employee or group of employees. Gender bias can be a legitimate basis for a lawsuit under anti-discrimination statutes.

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You will no doubt be aware that women are underrepresented in Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) occupations. They make up 14.4% of all people working in Stem in the UK, despite being about half of the workforce. This is well short of the country's goal of a critical mass of 30%. Increasing women in Stem is forecast to increase the UK's labour value by at least £2bn.

There is a whole tangle of reasons why the gender gap in Stem exists. One is a pipeline issue - fewer girls than boys choose to study Stem subjects at secondary school and university. Interventions internationally mean the numbers of girls in Stem subjects are creeping up very slowly, but the gap remains surprisingly resistant nonetheless.
Are girls biologically worse than boys at Stem subjects at school?
Biological explanations tend to rely on the fact that boys are better at spatial tasks while girls are better at verbal recall tasks. However, these differences are very small and their link to Stem ability is tenuous.

Meta-analyses consistently show that girls and boys are on average much more similar than they are different across a range of skills. For instance, a meta-analysis of gender differences in mathematics, based on 100 studies and testing more than three million people, found that girls outperformed boys overall in primary school, there was no difference in secondary school and there was only a very slight and inconsistent male advantage for complex problem solving.

Typically, girls do as well as or outperform boys in Stem classwork but do worse on tests. The International Student Assessment ( Pisa) reports on 276,165 15-year-olds from 40 countries who take identical tests in mathematics and reading. In 2015, the average difference between high-achieving boys and girls was 19 points, the equivalent of about half a year at school. But these differences disappeared when factoring in reported levels of self-confidence or anxiety towards mathematics. On average, girls were more anxious about tests than boys were, and this seems to have affected their score.
Are gender gaps socially constructed?
Luigi Guiso and colleagues used the Pisa data to explore gender differences in maths performance. Overall, girls' maths scores averaged 10.5 points (2%) lower than the mean average for boys, but this difference varied by country. In Turkey, for instance, the gender gap is greater (boys outperform girls by 22.6 points) while in Iceland the gender difference is reversed: girls outperform boys by 14.5 points.

The researchers then classified each country on the basis of gender equality, ie how much they treated women as equal to men. In more gender-neutral countries such as Norway and Sweden the maths gender gap disappeared. They state that if Turkey were characterised by the same gender equality seen in Sweden, the gender gap in maths would be eliminated.
Then why are there fewer women in Stem careers even in more gender-neutral countries?
These cultural effects suggest the gender gap in Stem careers should disappear in more gender-neutral countries. Yet we still find a higher proportion of men in Stem-related careers than women, even in gender-neutral Sweden. A study of 1,327 Swedish secondary school students explored why more boys are attracted to Stem subjects at university and more girls are attracted to subjects in the Heed (health, elementary education and domestic) spheres.

This difference was partially explained by "social belongingness": teenagers felt they would fit in better in subjects that had more of their own gender. But another important factor was "self-efficacy": the belief that one can succeed in a domain. We tend to approach domains where we feel we are competent and avoid those in which we do not. Boys and girls both had high self-efficacy in the Heed subjects, but boys chose not to pursue them. The researchers suggest that this may reflect the low social value and rewards associated with careers in these spheres.

In contrast, girls on average had much lower self-efficacy ratings in Stem, despite outperforming boys across school subjects. Even in one of the most gender-neutral countries in the world and despite the evidence of their own marks, girls still seem to be succumbing to the stereotype that girls aren't as capable in these subjects.
Where do gender stereotypes come from?
This is a complicated question, and the answer is: lots of places. Even young children can absorb and be influenced by gender stereotypes, and these can be as detrimental for boys as they are for girls but in different ways. A recent study by Lin Bian, Sarah-Jane Leslie and Andrei Cimpian has shown that five-year-old girls are just as likely to say that girls can be "really, really smart" but from six years up they think brilliance is much more likely in boys.

From this age girls are also more likely to be attracted to a game if it is described as being for children who "work really hard" than if it is described as being for children who are "really smart". Again, this is despite the fact that girls, on average, are outperforming boys in these subjects at school. These findings suggest gendered notions of intelligence are picked up very early and start having an effect on the sorts of interests that girls pursue.
How can we attract more girls to Stem subjects at university?
Research from these different perspectives converge on the idea that there is little to no difference in boys' and girls' average ability at Stem subjects. This means that in order to attract more girls to study Stem subjects at university and enter Stem careers, we need to tackle the stereotypes they are exposed to and we need to do this early.

One way to encourage girls is to use appropriate role models. As part of a campaign to coincide with today's International Women's Day, Speakezee, a platform that connects academics with non-academic audiences, is working with the Institute of Physics and the Girls' School Association to send young female graduate Stem students into schools to talk to and inspire young teenage girls to consider pursuing Stem topics at A-level. Professor Brian Cox may be the popular face of physics for mass viewing audiences in the UK, but young girls need individuals they are more likely to relate to if they are to be persuaded not to abandon their Stem potential.

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Bridging the gender gap: why do so few girls study Stem subjects?

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To attract more girls to study Stem subjects at university, we need to tackle the stereotypes they are exposed to early on

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Make sure to answer all questions honestly because no one  will look at the score, but remember to look at percent and compare it to the answers down below. The correct answers are the unbiased ones, if it is multiple choice answer and you only pick one, and get it wrong, you can count it right, if it is one of the "correct" or unbiased ones. It does not matter what meme set you pick. There is a 15 minute timer on all questions. This is the link: https://quizizz.com/join/quiz/5cffbc79f4b271001b93e160/start

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Think you're all for gender equality? Your unconscious may have other ideas.

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Think you're all for gender equality? Your unconscious may have other ideas.

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Tanya Shatseva

The words of my doctor from earlier that morning were still ringing in my ears when I found myself slamming the brakes of my car to avoid a nasty collision. An incompetent driver was cutting across two lanes at a roundabout just in front of me. Still perspiring somewhat I carried on to drop off my screaming child with the nanny. It was a hectic morning.

Now let's stop to take a breath and ponder on this story. Was the doctor you imagined male? Was the bad driver female? And what of the nanny and the narrator? Females too? If so, you have just experienced unconscious gender bias. You are not alone. Even the almighty Google image search "thinks" 75% of doctors are male but in reality women make up just over half of GPs in the UK. In fact Google has been accused of unconscious bias in its own operations as over 79% of its managers and engineers are male. Apple, Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo are not far behind.

What exactly is unconscious gender bias and why do we have it? Unconscious, or implicit, bias happens outside of our control and awareness. It's automatic and reflects the associations we acquire as we socialise into the culture we grow up in. You can test your own implicit biases more scientifically by taking this Implicit Association Test. The test was designed to capture the brain's learnt automatic associations. Since it is based on time reactions it can bypass our social desirability concerns and tap into unconscious biases. As such it is reportedly superior to self-report measures of prejudice in predicting behaviours.

Implicit bias is a result of our mind developing mental shortcuts to navigate the complexities of reality efficiently. It is often evolutionarily adaptive. For example, we automatically favour flowers over insects, which protects us from being stung by something that might harm us - a spider for example. This is both a normal preference for most people but has also been seen in implicit association tests. However, implicit association studies also show that we favour the young over the old, the white over the black and heterosexuals over homosexuals. But what about unconscious gender biases?

Wonderful people

Women are wonderful, or are they? You may be surprised to learn that research reports that we consistently prefer women over men and mothers over fathers implicitly. This is akin to the WAW ("women-are-wonderful") effect - women being perceived positively on the whole as they are stereotyped as supportive, nice and gentile.

This effect, however, disappears, and even reverses, the moment women step in to the "male domain" or otherwise challenge stereotypical expectations. For example, people implicitly ( and explicitly) prefer male to female authority figures, male to female leaders and non-feminist women to feminists. My own research shows that female students implicitly prefer housewives over businesswomen. The implicit pro-female preference also reverses in men when they expect to interact with a superior woman as opposed to an equal or subordinate one.

We only need to look to the recent American presidential election to see some real life examples of this effect. Donald Trump himself claimed that "nobody respects women more than I do" just three months before a record of his boastful groping account was revealed.

OPOLJA

So what about implicit bias towards men? Are they wonderful too? Again, it depends. Women implicitly prefer an egalitarian to a sexist or "typical" man, while men prefer that same egalitarian male less. Male public and private sector workers in my samples show slight implicit preference for a househusband over a businessman male type - perhaps due to the homely men's greater likeability. Still, when compared to women, traditional males - such as those in authority or leadership roles - are preferred.

What can we do about it?

Why does this matter and what can we do about it? Unconscious bias is particularly problematic in the world of work and education. Even in a supposedly objective academic setting male applicants for lab manager position in one experiment were hired more often and offered more money when their name was John as opposed to Jennifer - despite identical CVs. When professional women become mothers they suddenly are perceived as less competent - a trade-off which does not affect men when they become fathers.

Unconscious bias limits, among others, people's occupational prospects. The first step to deal with this is an awareness of the problem. The nature of our cognition and thinking processes means that all of us are vulnerable to various unconscious biases and all of us may be subjected to them. For example, one study showed that men under-performed on social sensitivity tests (for example decoding nonverbal cues) when they were told that the test assessed social sensitivity and produced better scores for women than men. Men who were told that the test assessed information processing did not under-perform.

Being aware of our own unconscious bias can help. However, prevention requires motivation. Therefore, anonymised recruitment processes, mentorship, carefully managed collaborative work environment and training can also help.

However, since unconscious bias has its roots in the social world we live - where we learn associations from the gender roles we see around us - the surest way to diminish it is to provide alternative associations.

This could be achieved by encouraging equal participation of men and women across traditionally gendered social roles. Once all doctors, drivers, nannies and world leaders are split fairly between male and female - and we see this represented across the media and elsewhere - over time we can move towards equal implicit associations. In the meantime we need to at least make the unconscious conscious so that it is less likely to play a trick on us.

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Think you're all for gender equality? Your unconscious may have other ideas

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The words of my doctor from earlier that morning were still ringing in my ears when I found myself slamming the brakes of my car to avoid a nasty collision. An incompetent driver was cutting across two lanes at a roundabout just in front of me.

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Girls will:
* develop an interest in STEM careers
*more likely get a good job
* develop creativity
* be prepared for the future
*build self-confidence
*Robotics is fun and exciting
*be part of a team
*socialize with others

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Robots Could Be Girls' Ticket to the Future

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Robots Could Be Girls' Ticket to the Future

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LOS ANGELES - Eleven-year-old Hayliee Tat traveled two-and-a-half hours with her family for a sneak preview of what the future looks like with robots in it. Their destination: the robotics open house at the University of Southern California (USC). The annual event draws mainly elementary and secondary school students from Los Angeles and beyond to spark their interest in robotics and computer science.

"Not many girls and kids are in robotics," said Tat, who was introduced to robotics, after a friend invited her to join a team that builds robots and competes with other teams through tasks the machines can perform.

"To me, this is a great way to meet new people, learn more and just have your creativity flow out," said Tat.

University of Southern California computer science

University of Southern California computer science intelligent robotics program student Kristin Jordan provides a demonstration of KIWI, a social companion robot to help children with autism spectrum disorder.

Tat, however, is in the minority. There is an imbalance in the U.S. between the small number of computer science college graduates, and the number of available computing jobs, according to a study by global consulting firm Accenture and non-profit group Girls Who Code.

Women make up only a small percentage of people who can compete for these jobs. The National Center for Education Statistics found that in 2015, women accounted for less than 18 percent of U.S. students graduating with a computer science degree.

The University of Southern California is trying to expose young people to robotics and computer science through the open house, where students can tour the research labs.

"We feel that if the kids can actually see the robots, hear the PhD students and the faculty members talk about what their research is and why it's important, how robots benefit society, we see through experience that the kids get really excited," said Katie Mills, manager of the robotics open house. She also manages the USC Viterbi School of Engineering's K-12 STEM (science, technology engineering and math) outreach program called VAST: Viterbi Adopt-a-School, Adopt-a-Teacher.

Graduate student Libby Boroson doing a demonstrati

Graduate student Libby Boroson doing a demonstration on drones to some students during USC's robotics open. She is a part of a USC lab that conducts research in the area of coordinated multi-robot systems.

The aim is to make robotics exciting and relevant so a student will want to learn how to code.

"Coding is like the necessary second language that everybody, especially this generation, is going to need. You know that there's fewer people, especially women, majoring in computer science in college now than there were 30 years ago? And there are so many jobs," said Mills.

Not seeing the creative side of coding and not realizing there are real life applications in computer science may be reasons some women shy away from this degree.

That was the case for Caitlyn Clabaugh, who was studying fine arts and never thought about computer science until she saw how relevant it is to helping people by applying creativity.

"When there is a clear application to a real human usage, it sort of bridges the gap for me. I was interested in the arts. I was interested in all these things, then I found that I could create with computer science," said Clabaugh, who is now a PhD candidate in computer science.

She researches how social companion robots can help children with autism.

"Definitely focusing on special needs is very special to me. I've struggled with dyslexia my entire life," said Clabaugh.

Another way to attract girls to computer science, said some academics, is by dispelling the myth that coding and computer science are lonely pursuits.

Allison Zubeck, a freshman studying industrial and

Allison Zubeck, a freshman studying industrial and systems engineering at USC helps school age students during a robotics workshop at the USC robotics open house.

Tat enjoys her robotics team because of the social element in building robots using the toy-building LEGO blocks.

"I personally love LEGO, so I think it was really fun to build LEGO and not only do you build LEGO you can do a lot of other things and it will make you smarter and the next thing you know, you'll have a lot of friends," said Tat.

Exposure to robotics and computer science before college is key, but not every school has the resources.

"They don't maybe have enough robotics equipment or maybe they have teachers that are a little uncomfortable teaching computer science," said Mills.

Through its VAST outreach program, the University of Southern California works with area schools, its teachers and students to try and fill the gap, in hopes of attracting more underrepresented students, including girls, to pursue computer science in college.

"It's like a fire. If you light a spark, it will go on forever," said Tat.

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Eleven-year-old Hayliee Tat traveled two-and-a-half hours with her family for a sneak preview of what the future looks like with robots in it. Their destination: the robotics open house at the University of Southern California (USC). The annual event draws mainly elementary and secondary school students from Los Angeles and beyond to spark their interest in robotics and computer science.

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Bring in a guest speaker or role model that would interest girls, because girls with role models are more likely to be interested in other careers.

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Be mindful in your language, the words that most teachers use for males is "Future Scientists, Future Mathematician, etc. For girls they use, "Future Female Scientists, Future Female Mathematician, etc.

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When girls don't see women as scientists, they may not see their future selves as scientists, either-but teachers can make a difference.

When boys and girls were asked to draw a scientist in a study several decades ago, the results revealed a stunning bias: 99.4 percent of the drawings depicted a male scientist. Out of 5,000 drawings collected between 1966 and 1977, only 28 were of female scientists, all of which were drawn by girls.

Since then, nearly 80 studies have repeated this experiment with over 20,000 students across all grade levels, and the results of all these studies were reviewed in a meta-analysis published last year.

3 Key Findings of the Meta-Analysis

1. Children are drawing female scientists more often: In the original 11-year study, less than 1 percent of the drawings collected from boys and girls were of female scientists. That number rose over the decades, reaching "28 percent on average in later studies," according to the meta-analysis.

2. Girls are driving the shift: Girls in particular began to draw female scientists more often. Only 1.2 percent of girls drew scientists as female in the original study, a figure that rose to 33 percent in 1985 and then to 58 percent in 2016-vastly outpacing boys, who still draw male scientists nearly nine of out 10 times.

3. As students get older, more of them tend to draw male scientists: In kindergarten, children draw roughly the same number of male and female scientists-girls tend to draw more female scientists while boys tend to draw more male ones. But by the time they're in high school, students-males and females combined-draw four times as many male scientists as female ones. The shift is more pronounced for girls: When asked to draw a scientist, 70 percent of 6-year-old girls draw a woman, while only 25 percent of 16-year-old girls do.

The overall changes in how children portray scientists aligns with larger trends in women joining science-related occupations. Data from the National Science Foundation shows that in 2015, women made up 48 percent of biological, agricultural, and environmental life scientists, up from 34 percent in 1993. Women in all science and engineering occupations increased more modestly, from 22.9 percent in 1993 to 28.4 percent in 2015.

Teachers play an important role in encouraging children-girls in particular-to pursue an interest in science. David Miller and his colleagues on the meta-analysis point out that "girls may avoid activities that they consider appropriate for boys but not girls," and everything from the language a teacher uses to the decorations on classroom walls may give students subtle messages about the roles of men and women in science.

Why is this important? Because "stereotypes linking science with men might limit girls' interests in science-related activities and careers," the researchers contend. When girls don't see women as scientists, it's more likely that they won't see their future selves as scientists, either.

6 Tips for Promoting a Sense of Inclusion in the Sciences

1. Use diverse posters and other classroom decorations: A 2014 study found that a classroom's symbolic features-such as images of scientists displayed on the walls-tell students "whether they are valued learners and belong within the classroom." When students don't see themselves represented in classroom materials, this can have "far-reaching consequences" for the choices they make in school, such as whether to take advanced science courses. Decorations should represent students of diverse genders, backgrounds, and interests.

2. Promote books that highlight girls and women: Children's science books depict male scientists three times as often as female ones, a 2018 study found. Not only were women underrepresented, but their contributions were diminished-books often presented them in a way that that suggested they were "passive, lower status, and superficial." To combat this, teachers can intentionally share books that feature inspiring girls and women in science.

or 3. Invite guest speakers and role models: Girls with a role model are more likely to be interested in, and pursue, a career in science, a 2018 study performed in the U.K. found. Teachers can invite female scientists to speak to their students in person via videoconference, or ask students to interview scientists in their community.

4. Be mindful of gender bias in language: The words we use can reinforce gender stereotypes, a 2016 study found. For example, referring to boys as "future scientists" while calling girls "future female scientists" can reduce girls' sense that science is an appropriate profession for them. And a 2018 report on makerspaces found that instructors tended to use terms like "geeks," "builders," and "designers" for male students while calling female students "girls" or "helpers." Such language "shaped attitudes and activities within the makerspaces," making it less likely that girls would hold leadership positions while allowing boys to have a larger role in steering group decisions.

5. Encourage a growth mindset: Girls as young as 6 years old are willing to put more boys than girls in the category "really, really smart" and avoid activities that they perceive as being for smart kids, a 2017 study found. To combat this, teachers can emphasize that intelligence isn't fixed and that all students have the capability to develop their abilities. As an activity, students can explore how the data on math and science achievement challenges prevailing stereotypes about boys and girls.

6. Avoid anxiety transfer: Teachers may inadvertently transfer their own math anxiety to their students, a 2018 study cautioned. When they do so, they send the message that "not everyone can be good at math." Girls, in particular, are susceptible to a teacher's math anxiety, according to a 2010 study. The more anxiety teachers felt toward math, the more likely girls were to believe that "boys are good at math, and girls are good at reading," and to have lower math achievement. High expectations paired with instructional strategies that emphasized learning instead of memorization and ability helped students develop a more positive attitude toward math.

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When girls don't see women as scientists, they may not see their future selves as scientists, either-but teachers can make a difference. When boys and girls were asked to draw a scientist in a study several decades ago, the results revealed a stunning bias: 99.4 percent of the drawings depicted a male scientist.

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(Main robotics teacher)

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Our Robotics Club adviser also noticed that even when girls are invited, they are less likely to join. Unconscious bias may be influencing our students!

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The higher you score on the quiz, the less biased you are in the classroom

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Extremely good, keep doing what you are doing, and now the only thing that you can do to help is to raise awareness of the problem to your colleagues.

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Good, but could be better. Maybe look at strategies to promote equity like in the next column.

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You are biased. You either should look at strategies to be more fair, or ask people you know how they suggest to be more fair.

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Watch out! You are extremely biased and need to find ways to be way more equitable.

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"While female students do as well or better than their male classmates in high school and college classwork, only 6.7% of women graduate from college with a STEM-related degree, compared to 17% of men."

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Tracking Girls and Women Out of Higher-Paying STEM Areas

Giving women equal opportunities to pursue - and thrive in - STEM careers helps narrow the gender pay gap, enhances women's economic security, ensures a diverse and talented STEM workforce and prevents biases in these fields and the products and services they produce.

A typical STEM worker earns two-thirds more than those employed in other fields, according to Pew Research Center. And some of the highest-earning STEM occupations, such as computer science and engineering, have the lowest percentages of women workers.
Key factors perpetuating gender STEM gaps:

Gender Stereotypes: STEM fields are often viewed as masculine, and teachers and parents often underestimate girls' math abilities starting as early as preschool.

Male-Dominated Cultures: Because fewer women study and work in STEM, these fields tend to perpetuate inflexible, exclusionary, male-dominated cultures that are not supportive of or attractive to women and minorities.

Fewer Role Models: girls have fewer role models to inspire their interest in these fields, seeing limited examples of female scientists and engineers in books, media and popular culture. There are even fewer Black women role models in math and science.

Math Anxiety: Teachers, who are predominantly women, often have math anxiety they pass onto girls, and they often grade girls harder for the same work, and assume girls need to work harder to achieve the same level as boys.

The Confidence Gap
The myth of the math brain is one of the most self-destructive ideas in American education - research shows no innate cognitive biological differences between men and women in math.

Many girls lose confidence in math by third grade. Boys, on the other hand, are more likely to say they are strong in math by 2nd grade, before any performance differences are evident.

A gendered math gap exists in elementary school - but it is really only evident among boys from higher-income and predominantly white areas performing significantly higher in math, even compared to girls attending those same schools.

Girls score higher than boys in math in lower-income, predominantly Black areas (representing around one-quarter of school districts), but their scores are still disproportionately low compared to scores for white boys in high-income areas.
Women are Underrepresented in STEM Workforce
By the time students reach college, women are significantly underrepresented in STEM majors - for instance, only around 21% of engineering majors are women and only around 19% of computer and information science majors are women.

Nearly 80% of the health care workforce are women, but only about 21% of health executives and board members are women, and only about a third of doctors. And, women are more highly represented in lower-paying fields, such as home health workers, nurses and the lower-paying specialties such as pediatricians.

38% of women who major in computers work in computer fields, and only 24% of those who majored in engineering work in the engineering field.

Men in STEM annual salaries are nearly $15,000 higher per year than women ($85,000 compared to $60,828). And Latina and Black women in STEM earn around $33,000 less (at an average of around $52,000 a year).

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The STEM Gap: Women and Girls in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

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Giving women equal opportunities to pursue - and thrive in - STEM careers helps narrow the gender pay gap, enhances women's economic security and ensures a diverse and talented STEM workforce and prevents biases in these fields and the products and services they produce.