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Unconscious gender bias is so deeply ingrained in our minds that we often do not realise we are acting on it. This needs to be addressed at every level.
I was in the middle of my exercise routine at the gym.
One of the receptionists entered the training area and made a beeline for me.
“Ma’am, did you come in a car?” “Yes” I replied, in the middle of my shoulder presses. “Is your car number ending with 4555? It’s parked wrongly, it’s obstructing the other cars.” “No, it’s not my car”
He then went towards a bunch of men.
This is not the first time, that when a car has been parked wrongly, the (unconscious) assumption is that it’s a woman who has done it.
The truth is that both inconsiderateness and poor judgement are gender-neutral traits.
Also, there are more men than women in my gym at any given hour and overall, more men drive cars than women do. So the statistical probability that a man had parked wrongly, is actually higher.
Yet the first move was made towards me.
Ironically as a woman, I am also less likely to make a mistake because I am minutely supervised in my parking routine by the security guard, to the level that none of the men are. Both at the gym and elsewhere.
Not only does does the ‘helpful’ parking assistant blow his whistle often to alert me, he also ‘turns the wheel’ virtually to demonstrate how I should be doing it. Maybe he does that for young drivers, but I honestly don’t see him extending this blow-by-blow education to male drivers who are my age.
While I am being supervised, I am sure many other male drivers park without the benefit of such minute tutoring and end up occupying more space than they should.
I share this, as a very powerful example of how unconscious gender bias operates.
If the assumption is that women are more likely to have poor judgement when parking, it’s a bias which may lead you to ignore men who also park badly!
In contrast, think of how effortlessly men have donned the role of master chefs, orchestrating meals with artistry and creativity.
We don’t assume they will be bad at cooking because they are men.
It can be extremely instructive to observe the gender bias operating around us. And the correct training for everyone from security guards onwards, is not just to to ‘respect’ women. But to also not make gender based assumptions.
I realise it’s hard but that’s the only right way.
First published on LinkedIn
Image source: YouTube
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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