I believe there is a gender bias on campus, and frankly anywhere you go.

Although the
gender bias is real, it occurs naturally, with very little help from larger powers. This was realized
through reading several articles, as well as giving around 60 UNC Charlotte students a survey
asking about how they felt about gender bias on campus. In this survey, we asked questions
from if they felt professors showed favoritism towards a certain gender, or simply if they believed
there is a bias. This survey was based solely off of these students experience, as my claim
began based off of my own experience, and then proved by evidence.
To begin, some people may think there is not a gender bias. I was actually part of this
group before doing more research. The main point to focus on this is that gender bias does not
target either gender, it is simply a bias for or against a gender in a certain situation. This
common misconception is that gender bias affects both genders. I discovered this mostly in
career choices. Females are rarely seen in STEM fields, such as engineering. This could
provide advantages, such as colleges accepting a larger percentage of the females who apply
than the percentage of males who apply, just to help raise the numbers. This could also be put
at a disadvantage because the females in the field may be left out or thought less of, therefore
offered less opportunities. Again, gender bias does not only affect one gender, Moss-Racusin
and Johnson wrote an article about males in the elementary education career path. They did a
study on how males, despite being accepted in the field during college, would struggle when
applying for jobs. Males are stereotyped as tougher and more of a safety threat, whereas
females are stereotyped as being nurturing and safe. Male elementary teachers are also
stereotyped as being gay, because if they have the more nurturing characteristics it means they
are not as masculine as a man should be. In this study, two identical applications where put into
a hiring process, but one had the name Jennifer attached to it, where the other had John.
They found that John would get hired less amount of times than Jennifer. This proves that
there is a gender bias, and that it affects both genders.
Though gender bias exists, I see how some people think otherwise, because the survey
results showed that professors are fairly equal on how they treat their students. Very few
students said they felt like professors favored males or females, but even the results for those
were close to equal. This, however, contributes to how gender bias is not forced. Since the
professors are not favoring a gender, and it is illegal for the school to bias its students, this
means the students are creating their own bias. As a female education student, I can verify this.
No one told my education friends or me that because I am a female I have to teach, but we
chose that path because it is what we wanted. Along with this, no one is telling male students
that they cannot teach. Males are actually encouraged more than females to join the education
department, because we are not a very diverse group.
This is the case with nursing students as well. Many nursing students are females, there
are very few male nurses, but that does not mean they cannot go down that path if they wanted.
But like the male elementary education majors, male nursing majors go through the same
difficulties. Many patients are shown to prefer female nurses, due again to the stereotype that
males are tough and females are nurturing. Male nurses may face these difficulties, but that is
not saying they cannot be a nurse if they want to.
There are some instances that a larger power does create gender bias through making
rules and even placing people. I cannot ignore that this does happen in some places, but it is
also illegal to discriminate people based on their gender, so it does not happen often. Some
places may do things that get by the law, such as an office might have mostly male workers, but
then hire a female to be a receptionist instead.
Some students also believed it was due to student preference, but many students
believed it was due to society. This is difficult because these two are tied together, and that
survey question probably should have been worded differently. Societal norms are a main factor
behind students choices in their lives. Although many females genuinely want to be teachers, it
is also a societal norm and would be odd if many females aspired to go into something such as
construction. The point behind gender bias being natural is that females could go into
construction if they wanted. They might have to hit the gym and get some muscles, but there is
nothing saying they could not do that, females simply would rather be teachers or nurses.
The social norm that teachers should be female actually has changed throughout history,
proving it at least began as a choice. Teachers used to all be male, and when women were first
allowed to work, they were not even allowed to teach the main subjects. Women began in easy
assembly line jobs, and if they were teachers they would only be allowed to teach home ec.
Classes. Women could have easily kept their factory jobs and turned those into working on the
machines that would replace factory jobs, but females wanted to be teachers.
Gender bias is a controversial topic, because some people may experience more of it
than others, but when it comes down to it, both genders experience it in their careers for no
logical reason, other than the fact that one gender may choose one career many more times
than the other.

ARANDA, M., DEL ROSARIO CASTILLO-MAYN, M., & MONTES-BERGES, B. (2015). HAS
THE TRADITIONAL SOCIAL PERCEPTION ON NURSES CHANGED? ATTRIBUTION OF
STEREOTYPES AND GENDER ROLES. Accin Psicolgica, 12(1), 119-130.
doi:10.5944/ap.12.1.14353

Moss-Racusin, C. A., & Johnson, E. R. (2016). Backlash against male elementary educators.
Journal Of Applied Social Psychology, 46(7), 379-393. doi:10.1111/jasp.12366