Transcriber: Rongbing Shen Reviewer: Eunice Tan
Ninety years ago,
my Canadian grandmother, Margaret, my namesake,
was the only woman enrolled at the law school
at the University of New Brunswick.
She was made to sit outside classrooms and listen to lectures from the hallway.
Fifty years ago,
my mother, a rare woman pursuing a PhD in genetics at Indiana University,
encountered so many obstacles that she left the program.
Fast-forward to my generation.
My sister and I, not having learned our lesson,
achieved our PhDs
and became college professors in competitive, male-dominated fields.
(Applause) (Cheering)
But we both faced more than our fair share of career hurdles:
imagined violations of gender-based expectations,
hazing in school,
and denial of tenure at our first faculty positions.
Ninety years ago,
gender bias was conscious and visible and easy to fix.
Policy change - let's let women into the classroom with the men.
Today, gender bias is unconscious and invisible and so hard to fix
because it's easy to deny that it even exists.
But it definitely exists.
The same resume is less likely to be considered qualified
if a woman's name is at the top.
The same online class
when taught by a hypothetical woman instead of a hypothetical man
generates much worse student feedback.
And yes, women professors are less likely to achieve tenure -
25% less likely if you're comparing men and women who are married with children.
The best way to achieve success in your career
is to be rooted in a basis of respect and camaraderie,
which, frankly, white men are often able to assume
but which often elude the rest of us.
#notallwhitemen.
#definitelynotmyhusband.
(Laughter)
Members of the transgender community see this clearly
as they're given continuous, unearned deference as a man
but their competence is continuously questioned as a woman.
I see this clearly
because I have now achieved a position where I am rooted and respected.
My colleagues, men and women, work with me collaboratively,
and this is the first place I've felt safe
to make bold, creative choices.
At a department meeting two years ago,
I suggested a curricular change that was, to my surprise, immediately embraced.
It's going to save the college tens of thousands of dollars a year -
this one idea!
It resolved an intractable staffing challenge for one department
and elevated the learning standards of several other programs.
Obviously, this was a good idea,
but it took me probably a year to work up the courage to suggest it
because I've consistently struggled to be heard at other institutions.
So what's different at this institution?
How is it that my colleagues respect my voice?
My theory:
people at this school are used to listening to women's ideas
because plenty of powerful women already work there.
This organization has invested in a long game -
over a century of investing in the long game -
of creating a more diverse, inclusive workforce.
The first full-time woman professor was hired in 1894.
Today, much of the leadership at the school,
all of the academic deans,
and fully half of the mathematicians and scientists are women.
And by the way, we're finding that this is an increasingly important factor
for getting women students through to complete STEM programs:
having women as mentors.
Society is capable of overcoming its bias,
but this only happens with deliberate effort -
individual people seeing a problem and acting to overcome their biases.
I'm interested in that purpose and that action,
and since I'm a neurobiologist,
I approached this from an anatomical perspective.
Our conscious beliefs are contained in different structures of the brain
than the parts where our unconscious behaviors are enacted.
Sometimes, those conscious beliefs and unconscious behaviors don't agree.
Let's take a look at the anatomy of bias
and the anatomy of deliberate effort that can effectively overcome that bias.
The massive structure on top of the human brain, the cerebrum,
is where we engage in our highest level of thought,
and especially in the cerebral cortex,
a half centimeter of gray matter that coats the cerebrum like frosting.
The cerebral cortex is broken up into functional areas,
with each responsible for different functions of cognition.
There are dozens of types of cognition, but they fall into three main categories.
The sensory cortex at the back of the brain processes sensation:
vision coming back from the eyes,
touch coming from the tips of the fingers up the spinal chord,
and sound coming in from the ears.
This is how we take in information about the world.
At the front of the brain is the prefrontal cortex,
responsible for our highest levels of human thought:
willpower, personality, judgment, reason, and conscious decision-making.
The motor cortex is in the middle, responsible for motion or movement.
This sends information down the spinal chord -
for example, a command to wiggle your fingers.
More than discrete movements though, the motor cortex is in charge of behavior.
One way to define behaviors
is series of movements in a particular order
and coordinated in a particular way.
I'm exhibiting a behavior right now:
I'm lecturing, and it's all movement.
I'm gesticulating with my fingers,
my eyes are moving around the room,
and I'm moving my teeth, tongue, and lips to create words.
Movements are the outward expression of my thoughts
and the only way the world knows what's going on inside of my brain.
Some say the only reason your brain exists is to move your body to create behaviors.
So the sensory, prefrontal, and motor cortices -
information, decisions, behaviors.
These areas are physically connected,
and so they communicate with each other and with other structures of the brain.
Now, it‘s a simplistic model.
I describe the command of movement with a single arrow
when it looks more like this.
The motor cortex works in concert with many structures of the brain
to command movements.
The physical structure of cognition in general
is difficult to describe succinctly.
But since the title of my talk is "The Anatomy of Bias,"
I guess I'd better try.
So we're interested in the architecture of two different types of cognition:
conscious values and unconscious behaviors.
Now, the anatomy of conscious values is hard to pinpoint.
There are at least 10 different philosophical models
describing consciousness alone.
It would live somewhere in connections among the prefrontal cortex,
the emotional centers of the medial temporal lobe,
other structures of the brain,
such as those responsible for recalling past experiences
or for predicting future behaviors.
You'd also have to take into account the hormonal state of the body
and whatever is happening in the external environment.
It's complicated - conscious values.
Today, I'm going to be focusing on the other type of cognition -
unconscious behaviors,
the structures of which are actually fairly well-defined.
The motor cortex works primarily
with the cerebellum, basal ganglia, and thalamus
to create a type of memory called procedural or skills-based memory -
the memory of tasks.
For example, you probably know how to button a shirt
and could easily think about something else while doing so.
You are unconsciously, automatically buttoning that shirt
and demonstrating procedural memory.
But buttoning a shirt
is a specific series of, actually, pretty complicated movements.
If you've ever observed a child learning this behavior,
they are consciously engaged.
So most behaviors are first consciously applied,
usually involving heavy input from the prefrontal cortex,
and then, once part of your procedural memory,
they can be carried out unconsciously.
Do you pay attention to exactly how you slip your foot into a shoe
or take a bite of a sandwich?
Or input your phone's password?
Or drive a car?
Procedural memory is at work all the time.
But remember that you had to first consciously learn all of these tasks.
You're always going to have some sensory input.
These two structures of the cortex work closely together -
it's called sensory motor integration.
If you're buttoning a shirt,
you have to be able to feel
whether it's a large button in a small hole
so you have to push harder to get the button through.
If you're driving, you have to be aware of the stoplight color
or the sound of an ambulance.
So the sensory cortex is always engaged, even in unconscious behaviors.
But importantly, there is a little input from the prefrontal cortex,
which is now free to carry out high-level cognition,
like creative problem-solving.
Perhaps because there's little input from the prefrontal cortex,
this unconscious behavior center,
this procedural memory system,
could work against your best interest.
You could absentmindedly enact a behavior you didn't intend.
Have you ever mistakenly grabbed the wrong set of keys
or driven toward your old house
even though you haven't lived there in two years?
When you were a child, did your mom ever call you by your sibling's name?
When you were at work,
did you ever explain something to a woman who really didn't need the explanation?
(Laughter)
I have certainly done that.
And one particular example of this changed my whole outlook in the classroom.
One day, my students were working in pairs
on a task reviewing a 20-step physiological process.
I printed out the steps, cut them into strips.
Their job was to work with their partners to put the steps in order.
After a few minutes, I walked up to a pair of male students.
They'd stopped talking; their papers were lined up.
I didn't even glance at their work: check, activity complete.
I then walked over to a pair of women who were still talking,
and I started critiquing them and fussing with their papers.
One of the women called me out for this difference in treatment,
pointed a finger to me and said, "You're a sexist."
I was shocked and full of excuses:
Oh, it had nothing to do with the fact they were women.
Their papers were messy; they were talking.
They really did look confused!
(Laughter)
But her words haunted me.
Had I interpreted women's chattiness as incompetence?
More troubling, had I interpreted the men's confidence as competence,
giving them a pass they hadn't earned?
I realized that, yes, at least in that moment, I was sexist.
In student evaluations through the years,
I occasionally got comments that I played favorites.
These are anonymous -
I didn't know what the problem was, much less how to fix it.
So I clung to this specific example of my bias
and was determined to learn from this painful interaction that day.
Since then, I've implemented a system of equalizing my attention -
spending the same amount of time with each group in peer review sessions,
having conversations
with each individual one of my 96 students every semester,
and walking each to my office to make sure they know they can visit me there.
College students oftentimes don't know how to utilize office hours,
and access is important.
Access may be the most important factor
when you're trying to resolve issues of equity.
I hope these conscious choices to be more deliberate in my interactions
will help me learn to become more unconsciously fair-minded.
Learning creates physical changes in the brain called plasticity.
The cerebral cortex contains about 16 billion neurons
which are interconnected via synapses.
Synaptic plasticity occurs
when molecular changes are made at the synapses,
creating a stronger connection
and allowing the cells to exchange information more freely.
If you have enough interconnecting cells
that have strengthened their communication enough,
a neural network forms devoted to that new piece of information.
For example,
you probably have a neural network in your motor cortex
or in your cortical-striatal- thalamic-cortical circuit
devoted to buttoning a shirt.
Have you noticed that younger people have an easier time learning things?
It's true - both of facts and of tasks.
I'm 45, and it took me a solid week to learn the first step of juggling:
a simple task of tossing a ball from one hand to the other accurately.
My 10-year-old son, Carter, mastered this in less than an hour.
There's a biological reason why adults take longer to learn.
Synaptic plasticity is mediated by an NMDA receptor,
a protein with four subunits, some of which vary.
More NR2B subunits make learning easier,
and these are proportionally higher at a younger age.
The famous "Doogie" mice,
where the young NR2B subunits were genetically overexpressed,
experienced enhanced learning capabilities throughout their lifetime.
(Laughter)
While we're answering lofty questions with science,
here's a doozy:
why is it that a woman who encounters bias in her career
would turn around and treat other women with bias?
This is likely due to cultural plasticity -
the idea that embedding yourself in a culture
and being barraged by constant, consistent messages
begins to effect implicit changes in your own behavior.
Cultural plasticity is correlated
with at least two physiological changes of the motor cortex, your behavior center.
First, there are cells in the motor cortex
that respond when witnessing other people enacting behaviors.
It's called mirroring behavior.
Second, cross-modal plasticity
means that some level of learning can occur in two places at once.
If a pianist hears a piece of music,
the auditory area of the sensory cortex is activated, which you'd expect.
But simultaneously, the motor cortex is activated:
the musician is imagining playing the piece.
So with enough information causing changes to the sensory cortex,
change occurs as well to the motor cortex,
pretty much bypassing that conscious route through the prefrontal cortex.
This is cultural plasticity.
Now, if you find yourself
embedded in a community imbued with hatred and intolerance,
a shortcut to bypass your cultural experiences is simple:
choose more tolerant behavior and practice it.
It's the same as any conscious learning.
A child learns to button his shirt by buttoning many shirts.
My seven-year-old son, Grayson, learns a piece of music on the piano
not by hearing it but by playing it repetitively.
The doing, the movement is important if you want to cause plasticity,
change the underlying neural networks to the motor cortex,
thereby changing your behavior.
So where does bias fit into all of this?
Well, it turns out the brain absorbs information best
when it is interesting or familiar.
Activation of your reward center, the ventral tegmental area,
or of your fear center, the amygdala -
either type of activation enhances plasticity.
And data fits into neural networks best when similar connections already exist.
In other words,
if new information resonates with what you've already experienced,
already believe to be true,
and especially if it pings your emotions,
you're more likely to remember it.
It takes more effort to learn something outside of your own world view.
It took me years to realize that my students' concerns about my bias
meant that I needed to take a hard look at my own behavior
and even longer to figure out how to begin to make a change.
So here's my prescription for change.
One - we must admit that we all exhibit biased behaviors sometimes,
usually invisibly and unconsciously.
Two - once one of those invisible biased behaviors pops up,
you have to face up to your bias.
No excuses.
And you're unlikely to perceive it yourself,
so this is where you need to listen to your truth-tellers.
You may hate what they're saying, but they're not lying to you.
(Laughter)
This step can be personal and painful,
but trust me, it can also be liberating.
Three - once you've realized your behavior is biased,
find a replacement behavior and practice it.
Importantly, you must make yourself physically do something.
Reading books and going to seminars may impact your conscious values,
but it will do little to change your unconscious behaviors.
You must act your way to true change.
Here's an idea if you're not sure where to start.
Do your part to help more women become rooted and respected.
Amplify women's voices at meetings.
Call it out on the spot
if you see a woman condescended to, interrupted, or silenced.
And in these situations, direct your comments to the interrupter -
don't direct advice to the woman.
Telling a woman to lean in puts more burden on her,
and it doesn't even make any sense if the culture isn't ready for her.
March with women!
Vote for women!
Promote women!
Hire women!
Don't talk about it - do it!
Hiring practices matter.
And even if you get mixed results at first,
keep hiring women, people of color, and people from othered populations.
As the culture improves,
your comfort with that hiring process
will also improve.
The dominance of US women's soccer underscores the importance of Title IX,
but that law was passed almost 50 years ago.
In the major orchestras of the US,
a decades-long policy of blind auditions
has slowly improved the proportion of women from 6% to now about 50%.
It takes patience to create a culture of inclusivity,
and maybe it takes policy change.
But isn't it worth it
to make sure you're recruiting the best, most talented people
and giving them a chance?
My mom, Anne, and my sister, Helen, are here today -
(Whooping)
two of the smartest people I know.
(Laughter)
But I wish my grandmother was still with us.
I stand on her shoulders -
a true pioneer of feminism.
My grandmother was the first woman
to pass the bar in the province of New Brunswick.
But she never practiced law:
nobody would hire her.
In her 80s and 90s, when I knew her,
she was smart and bold and funny and opinionated
and brokered no nonsense.
Who knows what ideas she had in her prime that were never heard?
Imagine sitting outside of a classroom,
straining to hear
and longing to contribute your own voice to important discussions.
In an allegorical sense,
that is still the lot of many women to this day.
But we have the opportunity to change that.
We all carry on implicit behaviors etched into our brains
that do not correspond with our best intentions toward equality.
But we can change our brains.
When you purposely engage in actions to back up your highest beliefs,
your conscious values and your unconscious behaviors
will begin to align.
Thank you.
(Applause) (Cheering)