Even when women outnumber men, gender bias persists among science undergrads

Increasing gender diversity has been a long-sought goal across many of the sciences, and interventions and programs to attract more women into fields like physics and math often happen at the undergraduate level.

But is representation enough to improve gender diversity in science? In a new study, Colorado State University researchers, including Brittany Bloodhart and Emily Fischer, say there’s more to the story: They’ve found that even when undergraduate women outnumber men in science courses, women may still be experiencing gender biases from their peers.

The CSU team, combining expertise in gender psychology, instructional intervention and physical sciences, conducted a survey-based study among both physical and life science undergraduate courses at CSU, asking students how they perceived each other’s abilities within those courses. Their results were published online June 25 in the journal PLOS ONE.

Read the full Source article, “Even when women outnumber men, gender bias persists among science undergrads.”