Which Part of the Story Does Unconscious Implicit Bias Analysis Capture?

Fiona Jenkins (Australian National University)

The talk will be followed by a panel discussion with:
Anil Gomes - Faculty Graduate Welfare Rep. (2014-15)
Karen Margrethe Nielsen - Faculty Graduate Women’s Officer
Paul Lodge – Faculty Equality and Diversity Officer

Abstract
Unconscious implicit bias (UIB) is now evoked routinely to explain the persistence of gender and racial inequalities, long after they were expected to have been defeated by the adoption of egalitarian norms. UIB seems to help us see how the causes of inequality can lie in non-deliberate forms of discrimination by well-meaning actors. By bringing the phenomena of UIB into the foreground, however, are more important questions about persistent inequality obscured? This presentation discusses where the limits of applicability of UIB approaches lie, particularly in view of gender inequality in academia. Although UIB offers a way of encouraging people to talk about uncomfortable topics, I argue its popularity as an analysis involves disavowal of the political character of gender inequality in academia, fails to examine the extent of inequality’s implications for disciplinary knowledge, and does not adequately challenge inequality’s supportive social and institutional contexts.