Link Me Up, Scotty - XY Bias Edition

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

In a study spanning three years, researchers "Sarah Eddy and Daniel Grunspan have asked over 1,700 biology undergraduates at the University of Washington to name classmates whom they thought were “strong in their understanding of classroom material.” The results were worrying but predictable. The male students underestimated their female peers, over-nominating other men over better-performing women. Put it this way: To the men in these classes, a woman would need to get an A to get the same prestige as a man getting a B." The more things change, the more they stay the same.

When I first started in my current role as an engineer, I worked on a team with gender parity. However, over the last seventeen years, as my own skills and experience improved, I have watched my female peers drop away. Here's why: "These biases, sometimes manifesting outrightly and sometimes insidiously, collectively create an environment where women feel like they don’t belong, like they aren’t valued, like the odds are set against them. Confidence falls, perseverance wanes, and careers die by a thousand cuts." Just so. I have experienced these phenomena myself, and some days I feel like I'm just too tired to continue to fight the good fight. Almost 40 years of this crap will wear a person down.

H/T Debbie the Librarian
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Cracked takes a stab at some offbeat reasons why city dwellers tend to be more liberal than their country cousins. Having lived in both a small town (for about a second - small town life does not agree with me, to no one's surprise) and a major city, this rings absolutely true to me.
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My favorite Christian Pastor asks "When did compassion become partisan politics?" For me, this strikes to the heart of the matter. I find the modern Republican platform to be so repulsive, so immoral, so sociopathic that it no longer surprises me when cries for compassion and kindness are seen as Democrat talking points. We have come to this sad state, and now can't find our way out of it.
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Shippie Jim Wright analyzes 45's news conference and comes to the conclusion that not only is 45 a pathological liar, the inside of his head resembles nothing so much as a bagful of cats. Won't someone in that Cabal of Blundering Numpties rein this guy in and act like a grownup?
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Pulitzer Prize winning Wall Street Journal journalist Bret Stephens on the dangers of underestimating 45's attacks on journalism, and the insidious problems inherent in allowing our culture to conflate "facts" with "opinions." "Shameless rhetoric will always find a receptive audience with shameless people." Katharine Graham, where are you now. 
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Still think there's gender parity in films? Think again. Even in films where a woman is the main character, men still have more dialog.
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Today's sources:
  • The Atlantic: Skews left but still a reputable source of in-depth news. 
  •  Cracked: A humor website that occasionally hits a home run on issues of the day.
  • Things That Need to be Said: The personal blog of Pastor John Pavlovitz
  • Stonekettle Station: The personal blog of writer Jim Wright
  • Time Magazine: Left-center bias with highly factual reporting. 
  • Polygraph: Explores complex topics with visual storytelling.

1 comments:

MAW said...

But cats are more rational than 45s brain....They're being unjustly maligned by the association ;)