| Abstract |
The existence of a pro-male gender bias during the evaluation of job applicants within a STEM setting is frequently demonstrated in the scientific literature. However, the generalizability of these results to the workplace is questionable, as most experiments only focus on part of the application procedure (i.e. evaluation of a résumé), and often employ students who lack experience with the evaluation of job candidates. We tried to overcome these two drawbacks by investigating gender bias in Computer Science faculty members, while they performed a job interview with a virtual applicant who was either male or female. A total of 61 faculty members working at the Computer Science Departments of various Dutch universities (including our own VU) participated in the experiment. Our expectation was that the male applicant would, on average, receive higher job suitability scores than the female applicant, as can be expected based upon the theory behind the gender bias. In this WAI talk, I will reveal the results of this experiment, and discuss possible implications. |