Professor Mindy Chen-Wishart, Dean of the Faculty of Law, Oxford University

The educated people always think that we all have gender equality but the reality in 2021 is very different. Recently, Tokyo Medical University admitted to lowering test scores on women’s entrance exams by 20 per cent. They wanted fewer female doctors because they believe that these female doctors tend to leave the medical profession to give birth and raise their children. Additionally, there are a lower proportion of women than men in the first-class degree in some universities and some subjects.

Professor Chen-Wishart also shared her own experiences. She was born in Taiwan and her family migrated to New Zealand when she was ten years old. Now, she is currently, the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Oxford University. In the UK, 92 per cent of professor in the UK are white and 80 per cent are male. She has to always contend with the feeling of not belonging which gives her the imposter syndrome. She does not get her graduate degree nor studied in Oxford. She faced several unconscious-biased questions from students and staffs in Oxford. Students and colleagues find it take to take her negative responses. This is very challenging. When she was asked to be the Dean, someone rang her to cheer her up. She never thought that she could not do it, but her question was whether the rest of the faculty accepted her leadership. She referred to the book by Nelson Mandala, “Long Walk to Freedom.” In this book, Mandala had to keep his surprise when he saw a black pilot. It shows that there was unconscious-biased feeling even for Mandala who was the embodiment of the legitimate and universal fight against discrimination. Therefore, she thought that if she was one of them and she met herself, she might also be dubious.

Gender stereotype distorts personal views of themselves and other people’s views of themselves. Women are much less confidence than men in many subjects. They hold back on expressing their ideas. In fact, confident is not as equal as competence. However, the research shows that people who act confidently makes others think that they are confident. Men tend to think that they are more able than they actually are. In other words, they then overestimated their ability by 30 per cent. On the other hand, they tend to routinely underestimate their abilities. This large confidence gap can lead to fewer opportunities for women.

Men tend to dominate the discussion, disrupt more frequently and speak for longer. Women tend to speak in a very short verse and not interrupt others. This makes women feel discouraged to continue the discussion. In other words, women are more sensitive to other people opinions and more likely to negatively interpret feedbacks. For instance, one of her Oxford colleagues who is an associate professor gave a talk at Hong Kong University. After the talk, she underrated her speech, even though she did a good job. Men also dealt with criticisms differently from women. Men tend to receive criticisms as an indicator that they can do better. On the other hand, women are more likely to perceive these criticisms as a sense of doing not good enough. For example, when she gave bad marks to a male student, he did not accept the result that he thought that this is her first time marking.

People are likely to perform poorly when they feel threaten or undermined. For example, a person who aware of negative stereotype will worry that performing poorly will confirm the stereotype. This is a result of the studies in the cases of African American, women, old people and students of lower socio-economic class. Stereotype-threat produced a physical response. It lowers self-esteem and arouses stress. This will later on lower the abilities of the performance of persons.

There are stereotypes from many sides. It can come from women as well. For instance, when Professor Chen-Wishart picked her son up from Sunday School. Another mother who has five kids told her that her son was the only one who did not cry. She said to her that this might be because her son was used to be neglected. She even once said that she was once took her kid to Oxford. She believes that this is a normal situation for women to work while raising children. Women can be a mother and a professional at the same time.

Everyone can have imposter syndrome. Doing things differently is not wrong. Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not. Women tend to turn things down when they should not turn things down. Help does not necessarily come to you. Sometimes you need to go out and look for it. It is not wrong to seek help from others. It is important to step up and reinforce other people. Women should support each other, and men need to help as well.