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Behrooz Parhami's Page: "Men Advocating for Gender Equity"
A Group of UCSB Staff and Faculty Members
Page last updated on 2023 November 22
I am the faculty chair of a UCSB campus group that goes by the name "Men Advocating for Gender Equity." It was formed following campus workshops that brought the notions of privilege and conscious/unconscious gender bias to the attention of the participants, some of whom decided to get involved in helping to bring about change. The group meets regularly, with the aim of educating its own members and helping spread the word by holding workshops and other forums. One of my roles is to maintain a list of educational resources, including a comprehensive reading list.
Quote: "Discrimination isn't a thunderbolt, it isn't an abrupt slap in the face. It's the slow drumbeat of being underappreciated, feeling uncomfortable and encountering roadblocks along the path to success. These subtle distinctions help make women feel out of place." ~ Meg Urry
Direct Links
Web page for the group (includes list of members)
UCSB MAGE Mission Statement
My Personal Action Plan
Workshops and Other Forums
UCSB MAGE Reading List
My Writings on Gender Equity
Other Resources in Brief
UCSB MAGE Mission Statement
Men* Advocating for Gender Equity (MAGE) is an interdisciplinary group of men-identified staff and faculty at UCSB committed to personal and collective action in support of women on campus. Recognizing the existence of gender inequity, we will actively engage in targeted activities to measurably improve the climate for women across our campus. We recognize gender inequity as one facet of social injustice, which together with other types of injustices (e.g., racial, socioeconomic, cultural, political), eats away at the roots of national contentment and prosperity. While we will specialize and focus on causes of, and remedies for, gender inequity, we will strive to remain cognizant of other injustices and how they impact our work.
*The terms "men" and "women" refer to those who identify with these traditional gender categories.
My Personal Action Plan
Realizing that men (heterosexual white men, in particular) are privileged and may exhibit unconscious bias against women and other less-privileged members of our university and the larger community, I am determined to take steps to deal with these problems, both active personal measures to correct my own behavior and learning not to be a passive bystander when I see bias and prejudice. Here are a few concrete steps:
- Keeping abreast inequities via listening to and reading about grievances
- Creating and maintaining a public list of readings and other resources
- Advocating through direct personal contacts and blog/social-media posts
Workshops and Other Forums
Roger Green (ND State U.) and Robert Gordon (Auburn U.), "Ally Workshop: Men Allies for Gender Equity," held at UCSB, May 9-10, 2019. [PDF slides] [Reading list]
Roger Green (ND State U.) and Robert Gordon (Auburn U.), "Men Advocating for Gender Equity," continuation of the May 9-10 workshops, held at UCSB, October 3-4, 2019.
Quinn Solis and Craig Leets (UCSB), "Queer & Trans 101," January 21, 2020. [PDF slides]
UCSB MAGE Reading/Viewing List
C. L. Anicha, A. Burnett, and C. Bilen-Green, "Men Faculty Gender-Equity Advocates: A Qualitative Analysis of Theory and Praxis," Journal of Men's Studies, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp 21-43, 2015. [PDF]
C. Bilen-Green, J. Carpenter, S. Doore, R. Green, K. Horton, K. Jellison, M. Latimer, M. Levine, and P. O'Neal, "Implementation of Advocates and Allies Programs to Support and Promote Gender Equity in Academia," Proc. ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Seattle, Washington, June 2015. [PDF]
A. G. Johnson, The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy, Temple U. Press, revised ed., 2005.
North Dakota State University, "FORWARD Presentations, Proceedings, and Publications" (Web page)
P. Plait, "#YesAllWomen," Slate, May 27, 2014. [Link] [A discussion about violence against women, and the oppression women face every day, informed by the following tweet of Karin Robinson: "No, #NotAllMen are violent against women, but #YesAllWomen have to navigate a world where those who are look the same as those who aren't."
The costs of male entitlement: Philosopher Kate Manne's ideas from her two books, Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny (2017) and Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women (2020), are discussed in this interview with The New Yorker. Among other topics, Manne discusses the difference between sexism and misogyny.
Documentary film "Picture a Scientist": Co-directors and producers Ian Cheney and Sharon Shattuck let biologist Nancy Hopkins, chemist Raychelle Burks, and geologist Jane Willenbring lead us on a journey deep into their own experiences in the sciences, overcoming brutal harassment (including overt sexual advances), institutional discrimination (from hiring to advancements and promotions), and years of subtle slights (such as women scientists assigned smaller labs than men) to revolutionize the culture of science.
American Association of University Women (AAUW) Playbook on Best Practices: Gender Equity in Tech. [Full 36-page PDF report] [One-minute video teaser]
British Computer Society's practical guide to increasing gender diversity and inclusion in tech. [TOC]
AAUP Report: Women in academia made $0.81 per men dollar in 2011; a decade later, they make $0.82.
Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security Report: "Beyond Engaging Men: Masculinity, (Non)Violence, and Peacebuilding" (Key findings from three case studies)
My Writings on Gender Equity
B. Parhami, "Women in Science and Engineering: A Tale of Two Countries," Proc. American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conf., July 2021. (PDF) (15-minute talk)
B. Parhami's Facebook post on "Men Allies for Gender Equity" workshop, May 9-10, 2019
B. Parhami's Facebook post on "Men Advocating for Gender Equity" workshop, October 3-4, 2019
B. Parhami's Facebook post entitled "What is Patriarchy?" (October 4, 2019)
B. Parhami's Facebook post entitled "Learning about Sex and Gender Spectrums" (January 22, 2020)
B. Parhami's 5-star review of Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men (2019)
B. Parhami's Facebook post about the documentary film "Pioneers in Skirts" (2020)
B. Parhami's 5-star review of The Gender Knot: Unraveling the Patriarchal Legacy (2005)
B. Parhami's 4-star review of The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World (2019)
B. Parhami's 5-star review of We Should All Be Feminists (2017)
B. Parhami's 5-star review of Gender and Our Brains: How New Neuroscience Explodes the Myths of the Male and Female Minds (2019)
B. Parhami's Facebook post entitled "When Women Stopped Coding" (July 23, 2021)
B. Parhami's 4-star review of x + y: A Mathematician's Manifesto for Rethinking Gender (2020)
B. Parhami's 5-star review of Data Feminism (2020) (Book talk by Lauren F. Klein)
B. Parhami's 5-star review of Women in Science: Then and Now (2009)
B. Parhami's tweet about The Nobel Prize Gender Gap (Ocotber 14, 2021) [58 women, out of 934 total]
B. Parhami's Facebook post about Women, Peace and Security Index 2021/22 (October 15, 2021)
B. Parhami's LinkedIn post about gender inequity in academia, by faculty age (December 23, 2021)
B. Parhami's Facebook post entitled "A subtle form of gender inequity in STEM" (December 04, 2022)
B. Parhami's Facebook post entitled "The Feminist Test We Keep Failing" (March 05, 2023)
B. Parhami's Facebook post entitled "The Linda Problem," a test exposing our prejudices (March 22, 2019)
B. Parhami's Facebook report: UCSB Town Hall on DEI Climate Survey Report" (November 03, 2023)
B. Parhami's Facebook post entitled "Gender inequality is a major economic challenge for India" (November 22, 2023)
Other Resources in Brief
Harvard's Project Implicit: Implicit association test (Bias self-assessment)
Five Ways Men Can Help End Sexism: 10-minute video
Pay gap between male & female scientists is widening in North America (February 2021)