Abstract
In this paper, Margaretta Midura’s text on A Battle of the Sexes is summarized and analyzed. This paper concentrates on a research from the text that was conducted on gender inequality in the STEM fields. The results of the study were that science professors were biased towards male students. The professors were more willing to men male students than female students, the salary offers for male were higher and the suggested competency levels for the males were also higher. The implications of these results are discussed. In the analysis, the implications and importance of conducting a research based on evidence is examined. Research based on evidence gives more accurate results as compared to that which is not based on evidence. It also helps to analyze the root problem and provide solutions to it. The analysis also looks at how one can easily obtain misleading results on gender bias from basing their facts on ideologies rather than evidence based research.
In John vs Jennifer, A Battle of the Sexes, Margaretta Midura looks at gender biases in the science department. She states that taking a glance at Yale’s science classroom, one is unlikely to notice any gender disparities in the number of male and female students seemed equal, and their participation in class also seemed fair. The author analyses a Yale study that proves otherwise. In this study, fictional students were created and sent to the science professors in the US. The applications were similar in all manners except that some were for a male student, John, and the others for a female student, Jennifer. The author says that researchers are often quick to conclude that there exists no gender bias in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields because women try to avoid this life or are less capable than men but the Yale study proved otherwise (Midura, 2017). The results of the study were gender biased towards male since the salaries suggested for men were much higher than that of women, the likelihood of the professors mentoring a male student were higher than a female and the competence levels indicated greater in male than in the female. These results affect the women interested in joining these fields and the STEM fields as a whole. This poses a problem to women who are interested in joining the field and the growth of STEM fields. A third-party check system and setting standards for professors could be used to eliminate gender bias (Midura, 2017).
A Battle of the Sexes is one of the few texts that address gender-bias in the STEM fields based on research evidence. This text relies on evidence since the author analyzes the results of a study that was conducted to address gender bias in STEM fields unlike other research work that tends to justify the male supremacy hegemony. At the beginning of the text, the author attempts to draw conclusions randomly without conducting research. She states that at a mere glance, one would be unable to draw correct conclusions on gender bias, but actual research helps draw the right conclusions that mostly are not what most people would have concluded without involving research. The author even points out that most researchers hold the ideology that gender bias does not exist since women do tend to avoid the life of a scientist. Others are misled by the dominant ideology that men are more capable than women. Contradictions on whether gender bias does exist or not need to be cleared using research to prevent misleading individuals. Research based on evidence helps people look into detail and try to eliminate gender bias and the problems that it poses. A good example is this particular research where the author recommends strategies that could be used in reducing gender bias in STEM fields. Research that is not based on evidence is misleading and more research based on evidence on gender bias in the STEM fields should be conducted so as to address the issue.
Works Cited
Midura, M. (2017). John vs. Jennifer, A Battle of the Sexes. In Dimensions of Culture 2:JUSTICE (pp. 32-35). Cognella, Inc.
