Individual Argument

When it comes to gender bias, the actual term gender bias is commonly underused, with the true
definition being unequal opportunity due to attitudes based on sex. The misconception of the term may
occur because people do not believe gender bias exists or, even though people know that it exists, have a
challenging time when it comes to actually identifying it. However, individuals across college campuses
have acknowledged its existence and have begun working to erase away this bias. Although these efforts
have been made to end gender bias, I insist more can be done on the university's part to eradicate this
issue.

According to my article Gender Bias in the College Predictions of the SAT, gender bias has been
present in US college campuses as early as the 1990s. This article discusses how the predictions made by
colleges, in this case University of California Berkeley, based off student SAT scores, under-represents
women. It states that this test doesnt accurately display a predicted college GPA or how women would do
in college courses because of the bias towards more male dominated fields. This article shows that gender
bias is affecting students admission to college, which is before they even get accepted into college. Also,
according to Title IX (federal law), No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded
from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education
program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." Therefore, gender cannot play a role in
whether a student is admitted or not. I believe that the solution to ending this unseen gender bias in
admittance could possibly be for colleges to simply look at the test scores of applicants without any
additional information (i.e. gender) and make their decision without gender playing a factor.

Colleges have begun to take steps in combating gender bias on their campuses. For example, at the
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, groups and organizations can be found that are working
together with students and staff to eliminate gender bias. For my teams primary research two, we
highlighted some of the possible groups and organizations on the UNCC website that are doing just that.
We were able to find a two-part workshop titled Gender Bias in Academia sponsored by ADVANCE
(the Graduate Schools Center for Graduate Life) that focused on helping women both dealing with bias
in graduate school and in facing bias when searching for employment, a Society of Women Engineers
(SWE) meeting flyer, and a quiz that claimed to determine if you were biased against women. I
acknowledge that all of these options and opportunities create awareness across campus towards ending
gender bias. However, when my team conducted our survey for primary research one, one of the
questions asked (to only UNCC students) yielded a result of over 75% of those that responded saying
either No or I dont know to the question Do you think efforts have already been made to end gender
bias on campus?. This means that even though the university has taken steps and formed groups that
combat this issue, it is not effective as it could potentially be. If we took the 75% from the survey and
claimed that 75% of the student population would respond either No or I dont know to the question
Do you think efforts have already been made to end gender bias on campus?, the efforts made by the
university would not be reaching nearly a large enough audience. With the male to female ratio at UNCC
being 51/49, I feel as if the university should at least be reaching 50% of the student population. I believe
that in order to accomplish this feat, the university must refine both how they reach their students and
who they are reaching out too. If they focus on the most common ways to communicate with students (i.e.
email, flyers in buildings, etc.) and collaborate with large groups that include their target audience (i.e.
sororities, SWE), then they will be more successful in reaching a larger percentage of the student
population.

Some individuals can argue that these efforts made by the colleges will not end gender bias, or even limit
its growth. Based on the year my article listed in the second paragraph took place (1995), they could
claim that if gender bias is still present 22 years later, then the efforts made by the colleges are futile in
changing this issue. However, I think the university's efforts have been somewhat measurably effective.
By creating organizations, such as SWE, the university has been able to increase the number of females in
a more male dominated STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics) major. Even though
this example is limited to one major and affects a small portion of the student population, it is still
effective in eliminating some of the gender bias in, what I believe to be, the most gender biased field
against women, engineering. I believe that if other departments or majors had organizations such as SWE,
then the eradication of gender bias would be much more widespread and prove that the efforts made by
colleges are effective.

References
Jackson, J. "Title IX Frequently Asked Questions." NCAA.org - The Official Site of the NCAA. January 27, 2014.
Accessed April 19, 2017. http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/inclusion/title-ix-frequently-asked-questions#who.

Leonard, David K., and Jiming Jiang. 1995. "Gender Bias in the College Predictions of the SAT." ERIC,
EBSCOhost Accessed March 29, 2017.

Stone, Danielle. "Gender Bias on the UNC Charlotte Campus." Google Quiz. April 5, 2017. Accessed April 19,
2017.
https://docs.google.com/a/uncc.edu/forms/d/1SPNnYTZBKr01CGo9lOHmsVed43BLrCz8lTuT5kZnN24/edit?
ts=58e414d2#responses.

"Multicultural Resource Center." Return to Multicultural Resource Center main page. Accessed April 20, 2017.
https://mrc.uncc.edu/society-women-engineers.