Heard a Sexist Comment? Go Play Bingo!
On occasion, I stumble upon an article and have a double-take to make sure that it’s not a satirical piece from the Onion.
With the help of a $300,000 National Science Foundation grant, Joan C. Williams, a professor at the Center for Worklife Law at the University of California created Gender Bias Bingo.
You read that correctly: bingo!
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education:
The game is intended for women, although men who have overheard biased statements or have faced bias because they are fathers can also play. An online bingo card names six overall categories of gender bias, like assumptions that women cannot be both good mothers and good workers. Professors who submit examples online of at least three of the types of gender bias in the workplace can declare bingo and win a T-shirt.
That’s right. If you submit a story, you can win a t-shirt exclaiming, “Real Professors Play Gender Bias Bingo!”
What strikes me is that academia is extremely sensitive, almost to the point of paranoia, of sexism and gender bias. Why did the NSF need to invest $300,000 to further train academics? Colleges are the most politically correct, and therefore “safe,” places to work. Perhaps it’s the sheer volume of ink spilled on sexism that makes it difficult:
Ms. Williams had read nearly 200 scientific studies of gender bias in academic journals and wanted a way to make the findings accessible to female professors. So she came up with four general patterns of bias, solicited examples of them from focus groups of female professors, and made it all available on a Web site, along with the bingo game.
Given that definitions of “gender bias” are generally biased against conservatives, particularly conservative women, it is tempting to create a “Feminist Bias Bingo” game. I’m betting that it could be made for a lot less than $300,000.
Cross-posted at CampusReform.org
October 30th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Gender bias is HUGE at universities. Every year studies are done showing that women don’t receive the same PC treatment as perhaps minorities or others would, especially in terms of promotion. In science and math that discrimination is even more evident. Women outnumber men in biological science undergraduates by almost 20% but can be outnumbered by double that in labs as they progress. $300,000 doesn’t seem like that much to help make sure that everyone is being judged by what’s in their brain.
October 30th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Just in general, do you have a theory about why professors tend to be liberal? I’ve often wondered that myself. Given your work with Campus Reform I figured you’d have pondered this, too.
You post makes me want to play bingo :O)
November 1st, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Heather–why does gender matter in education? Isn’t it time to get past these artificial quotas and award professorships, grants and promotions by merit?
I trust you, but statistics can be manipulated in any way. I’m just tired of the labels. These arbitrary “discriminations” are going to exist as long as people look for them. Women have achieved parity in the workforce. Not every single field is always going to be 50/50. I don’t want to be rude, but it’s time to get over it and stop whining.
As long as women find “discrimination” in the workplace, they’ll be assured jobs at centers such as the Center for Worklife Balance. This five decade fight with discrimination is a self-preservation tool. Unless they complain and are vocal, they won’t get the funding. Rather than publish or perish, why not create your own “crisis” and wrote ad naseum on it. When you create your own field of research, you’ll never be out of a job.
Interested Citizen: I think several factors come into play. Academia has traditionally been anti-establishment. However, many of the most ardent leftists (as opposed to classical liberal, which I consider myself) stayed there in the 60s to avoid the draft. Women saw academia as a way to pursue political goals. Feminist theory completely dismisses all previous knowledge and sets out to establish a new form of scholarship. Leftists have been extremely successful in building programs that promote their own interests, pursue a political agenda and insulate themselves from ever encountering unenlightened people.