Unconscious bias is an interesting issue, and it's a mistake that everyone makes, and we all have to go to debug.

In Monday, at the south-west (1) Conference held in Texas State, USA, a symposium led by Eric Schmidt, a writer for jobs biography, Walter Isaacson, the White House technical director Megan Smith, We are talking about innovative and pluralistic issues in the scientific and technological community.


(from left) Eric Schmidt, Megan Smith, Walter Isaacson
(Photo source )

However, at the end of the discussion, one participant stood up to ask: Q&a

In the course of the discussion, "eric Schmidt repeatedly interrupted Megan Smith and asked Megan Smith how he saw such unconscious sexism. And how do these biases affect you and other women? 」

The problem was an uproar. Even more surprisingly, the woman who asked the question was Judith Williams, manager of the Google Multicultural division, which means Eric Schmidt was clearly corrected by his employees. Because of the content of the symposium, it is also very ironic that the question of allowing more women into the technology industry will contribute to the diversification of the technology industry.

Megan Smith, who was interrupted by his speech, was actually an old comrade-in-arms of Eric Schmidt, who graduated from MIT, joined Google in 2003 and was promoted as vice president of product development and was responsible for promoting Google X's projects. Google X can be said to be Google's most advanced departments, including Google Glass, Google automatic car and other innovative ideas, are from Google x . (Share with you: the fashion taste of Technology, Google Glass)


(Photo source )

Megan Smith, who was last seen by U.S. President Barack Obama in the White House as a technical director, had a chance to meet with Eric Schmidt, an old colleague, at the symposium, but was interrupted frequently. Even so, Megan Smith's answer to Judith Williams's question is very round and intelligent:

"Unconscious bias is an interesting issue, and that's a lot of mistakes that everyone makes, and we all have to go to debug (Note 2)." 」

In fact, Judith Williams was not the only one who noticed the phenomenon, and many of the attendees said their voices on Twitter the other day: "Has anyone noticed that our White House technical chief has always been interrupted when he speaks?" "I'm glad Judith Williams found out about it too!" "It seems that unconscious prejudice is evident in the eyes of others. (same field Gayon: is to dare to counterattack!) Ariane Anna, Gabre Silk Tippy, Renee Zellweger lattice: "My beauty, define myself!" ")

Although in this case, Judith Williams did not mention the word manterrupt, but in fact this is very typical manterrupt! This English word, composed of man (men) and interrupt (interrupted), is the most recently created, very fiery scarlet word. Because when women speak in the workplace, but the men are interrupted loudly, it is very often happen.

Women in the workplace, often faced with a variety of different difficulties, equal pay, physical leave or parental leave dare not invite, or even workplace sexual harassment. Manterrupt seems like a small thing, but it's a trivial matter that can make us see the power relationship in the workplace clearly.

Earlier, in the "young age" to take the Oscar best supporting actress Patricia Sia Aquit (Patricia Arquette), in the speech said this paragraph, also are still ringing:

"To all the women who have given birth to this country, to all taxpayers and citizens, we have fought for the rights of others." Now is the time for American women to have equal pay and equal rights. 」

If you are often manterrupt in the workplace, please do not think this is a trivial matter, speak up bravely, because everyone should know-you can speak, but must wait until your turn! Whether you are a man or a woman.

(note 1) southwest of the south (South by Southwest, abbreviation: SXSW) is a series of film, interactive multimedia and music festivals and conferences held annually in the United States Texas State Austin. The first south Southwest began in 1987, with the annual scale continued to grow. ( data source )

(note 2) Debug is to remove the wrong meaning in the program, Megan Smith, an engineer, is very interesting in choosing this word.