rEvolutionaries Project

Do parents and teachers, at High Tech High feel

discriminated against in work/workplace?
Abby Sebert
10th Grade
High Tech High
Lisa Griffin
Mona Kiani
Bernardo Quintero
2015

Table of Contents:
1. Personal Narrative 3-4
2. Privilege Interview 5-7
3. Project Proposal 8
4. Experiment 9-17
5. Analysis and Implications 18-20
6. Experiment Reflection and Write up 21- 22
7. Research Process and Source Summaries 23
8. Interview Highlights Reflection 24-25
9. Latin American Compare and Contrast Paper 26

Abby Sebert
PM Class
12/1/15
Zeroing in on Privilege
I was born in Vista, California on March 11th, 2000. My Mom and Dad grew up in
Porter county and La Porte county in Indiana. After they went to college and got
married, they moved to San Diego so my dad could go to law school. 3 years later I was
born. My family has lived there ever since. Growing up I feel like I have been very
privileged not only with my family but in the world too.
There was never really a moment where I first learned that I was Caucasian. I
would ask my family like any other kid about what race I am or why people looked
different then I was. As I got into middle school, we learned about racism and how
African Americans, Mexicans, Asians and other races were targeted because they were
not white. On the news I would see headlines like Hate Crime Turn to Murder and
Rallies Over Racism. They scared me, the things that people would do just to hurt
another based on the pigment in their skin. It sometimes made me ashamed because
that was who was representing me.
Im do not feel privileged however, when it comes to ethnicity and where I come
from. I was never told about what ethnicity I am. I asked constantly but my parents
didnt know either. It makes me a little sad because other families have traditions and
celebrate cultural holidays where as myself and my family have nothing to praise about
our ethnic backgrounds because we simply do not know.
I was first aware of my gender when I got to pick out my own clothes to wear. My
mom would hand me dresses to wear and honestly it didn't matter to me so I put them
on. My mom would ask if I wanted to wear the dresses and I would say yes but I would
question why I wear dresses and friends of mine who I knew were boys wouldnt. She
wouldnt say "Because only girls get to wear dresses", she simply said it was because I
was a girl and had a different body. I accepted this and went on wearing girly clothes.
As the years went by, I came to the point that I really hated skirts and dresses and
makeup, everything that I thought associated with being a girl. For a couple months I
wondered if because I hated girl things that I shouldnt be a girl. It bothered me because
I knew my body was a girl but the stuff I liked to do or how I presented myself didn't fit
the standards of a woman. I understood that I wasnt a boy. It never came into my mind
that I wasnt the right gender. I simply felt like I was a bad representation of a girl based
on what I saw in the world about women and how they acted. It took me a while to gain
confidence in myself and accept and love the fact that I am a girl no matter how I
present myself.
My family is not religious at all. We never go to church, pray or practice the bible.
My parents never told me that I wasn't allowed to believe in anything it was just not an
interest they had so they didn't pass it on to me. I had my first experience with religion
when I went to my friends birthday party in kindergarten. It was close to christmas time
(my family always celebrated christmas, I only thought it was a day where Santa came).
I asked the girl what she wanted for christmas and when she said she didn't celebrate it
and I got really confused. I thought everyone got gifts from Santa, except people on the
naughty list of corse. In the car ride home I asked my parents what Chanukah was and

why Lucy didn't get a visit from santa. They then explained the difference between each
religion. I then learned later on in life that my parents are somewhat Atheists but I
considered myself to be a believer that something's out there in the world, I just don't
know if it's god or not.
From middle school to now I have really seen all of the different social classes
because going to a High Tech school really makes you think about that stuff. I started to
notice that African American people were treated less than white people. I never thought
in anyway that I should be treated like I'm better than anyone, I'm not rich, I don't come
from a wealthy white family so it sorta made me ashamed to think that the race I am is
portrayed of that way.
I never had any disabilities, both mental or physical. In the 2nd grade however, I
had to take a special reading course separate to what the rest of the class was doing.
The teachers had noticed that I had a hard time reading. I got my own teacher and
everything. I asked my mom why it was just me by myself. I thought there was
something wrong with me because I read too slow. She said nothing was wrong and I
asked her if I had a mental disability. I only knew the word but not what it really meant.
She still said no and said that she took me to the doctors when I was little to get
checked out if I had a disorder but it was proven that I did not.
As I reflect on all these privileges I realize that even though I have been
fortunate, there is still things I would like to know about regarding other people's
privileges. I don't feel like I have privilege in my ethnicity but that is something I can try
to change. Other people who may be a different minority race or social class doesn't
have that same option. Zeroing in on my privileges really made me aware of what other
people may not be fortunate enough to have.

Abby Sebert
10/13/15

It All Started with Ashley Tisdale

I interviewed my bestfriend, Maiya Pozos. She is a fifteen year old student at High
Tech High International. She is also a mexican/american lesbian. I chose her for this project
because I was really interested in how her race and sexuality affect her life and maybe how
they affect each other. Because we are so close, she is very open with me and I feel she
trusts me. I chose both sexuality and race because those are two things I want to learn
more about and Maiya happens to fall under both of those categories.
SEXUALITY
How has being a lesbian affected your homelife and social life?
It hasn't...I mean there's this girl that my brother married though, she doesn't like me
because I'm very gay. She is a homophobic and it makes me feel really bad. She's rude
towards me and the rest of the gay community.
What memory of being discriminated against will you never forget?
I don't think I've been in a situation like because fortunately I've never been bullied. I do
think though it's never happened because people are scared of me. I guess I'm just
intimidating.
At what moment in your life did you realize and/or accept your homosexuality?
End of fifth grade beginning of sixth grade. I don't know like I thought girls were really cute
and I told my mom and she's like "Oh no no no that doesn't mean you're gay. It only
means..you know..I think girls are cute too but that doesn't mean I want to marry them." And
so I'm thinking oh okay true. But then I realized no, no I like that girl. It all started with Ashley
Tisdale really.
What would you like to say to people who have judged/discriminated against you or
other homosexuals?
What's your problem?? So I guess they have all their straight pride and everything but like I
don't understand why they can't accept other people for being happy when they are allowed
to. They're allowed to blast on their social media pages but when girls do it with their girl
friends or guys do it with their boyfriends straight people are like "Ew you're gross". Just
stop.
Have you ever stood up for another LGBT person when they were being bullied?
Again, I was fortunately never in an environment where people were being bullied for their
sexuality.
RACE
Have people ever questioned your race?
Oh yeah. Well Im half mexican and half white and everyones like you're not mexican why
are you lying? Like no for real I am and you know its annoying.
What are some things or experiences do you think you are left out of because of your
race?

Those mexican conversations. You know when those groups get together and talk in
Spanish and then there's just me and im like dude I understand you why do you think I
can't? Or like when people talk bad about me but like Im standing right there and I
understand them and they just look dumb.
What are some things you get to be apart of or celebrate because of your race?
Birthdays and big family parties. Just being around my family a lot.
What memory of being discriminated against based on your race will you never
forget?
I really haven't been bullied for my race. I don't get bullied....but people are snobby towards
me because you know I look white. Ill say yeah Im mexican or Ill talk in Spanish and they
would be like Dude....what are you doing?? so Im just like Being mexican.... I don't know
I just think it's annoying when people are like oh you don't look that way so you can't be that
way.
Are you proud of your race?
Oh yeah, we are great people and we always look happy. Im really proud of my race
because you know we are like the community race....you go to TJ and everyones like
Ayyyyeee and you're like Ayyyeee and you don't even know them but they know you in
like a mental way. There's a big connection.
The interview went good, it was a little short but she really took towards the
questions and worked with them well. I felt happy for Maiya because she was never
discriminated against or bullied because of her race or sexuality. It did surprise me though
when she told me that a family member of hers does not support her sexuality, I can't
imagine how hard it must be for her to go through that in her own family. I did not know that
so many people have questioned her race and that made me get a little mad because I
think too that its annoying when people think that just because you look different that
doesn't mean you can't be who you are. Some new wonderings I have about these areas of
privilege are, What would you do in a situation where you were being discriminated based
and/on your race or sexuality? And, have these two privileges affected each other in a
negative way and if so how? I learned a lot about Maiya through this interview, including
things I had absolutely no idea about. Also, I learned that both race and sexual orientation
have a lot in common. For example, people are judged because they want to be the person
they were born to be when maybe they don't have the main attributes of being that type of
person.

Project Proposal
Gabriel Carson
Ben Eck
Abby Sebert
Greta Freitag
PM Class
Project Proposal: Gender Bias In The Workspace
Essential Question:
Do parents and teachers, at High Tech High feel discriminated against in work/workplace?
Justification:
Our topic is gender equality in the workplace. This is important to us because we feel
that non males are getting less opportunities at work because of their male competitors. This is
an area of privilege for males because they are perceived as the dominant gender therefore
they have more advantages than the non males. It can be explored on a global scale by
comparing the males to non males salary and or acceptance rate.
To explore this topic we will use surveys and personal experiences on gender bias in the
work space. We will give a survey to all of the parents of the FML team and the staff of HTH.
Also we will interview our own parents on gender bias. Some questions we have are...Do men
make more money than women in the same field of work? Are males more accepted for jobs
than non males? By answering these questions we will expose any inequalities that exist in the
workspace and help make a brighter future for tomorrow.
Each member of our group feels that they all bring something important to this cause;
Gabe feels like he brings strong interview skills, Greta and Ben feel that they bring math and
photoshop/After effects skills, and Abby feels that she brings a good concentration and focus on
the topic. We think that we are a good group because we are efficient and we build off of each
other's ideas.

The Privilege Project:

Experiment Plan and Timeline

Group Members:
Abby Sebert
Gabe Carson
Greta Freitag
Benjamin Eck

Topic:
Gender bias in the workspace

Essential Question:
Do parents and teachers, at High Tech High feel discriminated against in
work/workplace?

Experiment Design:

1. Quantitative Data: We will be sending a survey to all of the staff at High Tech High and the
parents of the FML team. The survey will have questions like... Are you male or non male?
Have you ever felt uncomfortable in the workplace because of your gender? Have you ever
felt you were given less opportunities in the workspace because of your gender? Have you
ever been discouraged to do something because of your gender? Have you ever been told
NOT to do something because of your gender? Have you never had a job, had a job/ is in a
current job? We are hoping to get a sample size of 80- 90 (all parents + staff).
2. Qualitative Data: We will all individually interview our parents about their experience of
gender bias. We will be using different, more broad questions for our parents because they
would have already taken our yes/no survey.

Timeline:
10/16/15- Finish draft of survey
10/19/15- Get back surveys from teachers
10/19/15- Email out surveys to staff
10/20/15- Email out surveys to parents, interview our own parents
10/22/15- Pool data, write up parent responses and start/ hopefully finish frequency tables
10/23/15- Pie Charts?

Group Roles & Next Steps for Each Person: List out all the things that need to be done and
write out who will do what.
Gabe: Going to make doc of questions and answers of parent interview. Work on two way
frequency table.

Greta: Start making base for the poster, layout and etc. -starting 10/20/15, work on it until
its due, with input from group members. Also editor of frequency tables
Ben: Pie charts and teaching the group how to do a pie chart.
Abby: Email Marcus Bell and parents the survey. Start the two way frequency table.

Gabriel Carson
Abigail Sebert
Benjamin Eck
Greta Freitag
Essential Question: Do parents and teachers, at High Tech High feel discriminated against in
work/workplace?
Question #2: Are you currently employed? (Gabe)
Employed

Not Employed

Total

Male

1717/17 100%
17/47 36%

00/17 0%
0/4 0%

17

Non-Male

3030/34 88%
30/47 64%

44/34 12%
4/4 100%

34

Total

47

51

Question #3: Do you have a college degree? (Gabe)

Yes

No

Total

Male

1616/17 94%
16/40 40%

11/17 6%
1/11 9%

17

Non-Male

2424/34 71%
24/40 60%

1010/34 29%
10/11 91%

34

Total

40

11

51

Question #4: Have you ever been told not to do something because of your gender?
(Ben)

Male

Yes

No

Total

33/17 18%

1414/17 82%

17

3/10 30%

14/41 34%

Non-Male

77/34 21%
7/10 70%

2727/34 79%
27/41 66%

34

Total

10

41

51

Question #5: Have you ever been discouraged from doing something because of your
gender? (Greta & Abby)
Yes

No

Total

Male

4 4/17 24%
4/13 31%

13 13/17 76%
13/36 36%

17

Non-Male

99/34 26%
9/13 69%

2525/34 74%

34

25/38 64%
Total

13

38

51

Question #6: Have you ever felt you were given less opportunities because of your
gender? (Abby)

Yes

No

Total

Male

2 2/17 12%
2/14 15%

1515/17 88%
15/37 40%

17

Non-Male

12 12/34 35%
12/14 85%

22 22/34 65%
22/37 60%

34

Total

14

37

51

Question #7: Have you ever felt uncomfortable in the workplace because of your
gender? (Greta)

Male

Yes

No

Total

5 5/17 29%

1212/17 71%
12/32 38%

17

5/19 26%
Non-Male

1414/34 41%
14/19 74%

2020/34 59%
20/32 62%

34

Total

19

32

51

Abigail Sebert
Benjamin Eck
Greta Freitag
Gabriel Carson
Essential Question:
Do parents and teachers, at High Tech High feel discriminated against in the
workspace?
Implications:
1) Probability of being employed: 47/51 (92%)
2) Probability of being unemployed: 4/51 (8%)
3) Probability of a non male being unemployed: 4/34 (12%)
4) Probability that have been told not to do something because of gender, given
that you are not male?
P(Told not to do something | non-male) = 734= 21%
5) Probability that you felt uncomfortable because of gender in the workplace,
given that you are not male?
P(Felt uncomfortable | non-male) = 1434= 41%
6) Given that you are a male what is the probability that you have a job?
P(Male and Employed) = 14/17 = 82%
7) Given that you are a non-male what is the probability that you have a job?
P(Non-male and Employed) = 27/34 = 79%
8) Probability that you have been given less opportunities because of your
gender given that you are a male.
P(less opportunities | male)= 2/17 = 12%
9) Probability that you have been discouraged from doing something based on
your gender given that you are a male.
P(been discouraged | male)= 4/17 = 24%

Analysis
Our group is focussed on the discovery of the effects of social bias, and through
online surveys to the parents and teachers of High Tech High, we sought to answer the
question Do parents and teachers at High Tech High feel discriminated against in
work/in the workplace?
As we look at the employment between males and non-males we can see that
males have a three percent advantage over the non-males. In large sample sizes, three
percent would carry more weight, but because we are dealing with a sample size of fifty
people three percent does not tell us much. What is affecting our data is the lack of a
large sample size and the ratio of males to non males. There is a seventeen to fifty-one
male ratio against a thirty-four to fifty-one ratio of non males. There is almost twice as
many non-males as there is males.
Our data was a little questionable when it came to finding the percentage of male
and non males who were, and were not employed. This kept us from finding the real
theoretical probability therefore we only got a little of the data we were looking for. The
percentage of males that we surveyed, which was 51 in total, 100% of the 17 males

were employed. But for the non males, 30 out of 34 non males were employed leaving
the other 4 (12%) not employed. This was confusing because our first our original
questions were Are you employed? Are you not employed? and if you were employed
for how long?. This messed up our data because we werent, or it wasnt easy, to
categorize where we should put those who answered the time they were employed.For
most of those responses we categorized them as they were not employed but this
messed up the experiment knowing some of those surveys were lied in.
Another one of our experiment questions was: What type of college degree do
you have?. It wasnt as hard as we believed it would of been but it wasnt too accurate
as well. To begin, we graphed the people who responded to having no degree, which
was 11 out of 51, and then we moved onto to the people who had a degree. It was hard
at first putting in the results because in our spreadsheet, with all of the survey
responses, there was a huge list of different degrees people had. So instead to make it
easier we categorized them in the sense of a yes or no question. If they had a degree
we put them in yes and if they did not then we put them in no. So for the final result
we got a total of 40 people with degrees. 40% who said yes were male and the other
60% were non male. Out of the total 11 people who said no 9% of them were male
and the other 91% were non males.
Our experiment found that, if you are not male, there is a 29% chance that you
have been told not to do something because of your gender. This means that 1 out of
every 4.8 non-males said that this has occurred to them, while 1 out of every 5.6 males
have had this experience. This is a bit surprising, since we initially thought that more
non-males would have found themselves in this situation, when in fact it is only slightly
more occurrent for the non-males in this case. However, this could partially be because
it is difficult to think of distinct occurrences of discrimination, and that such a thing
happening to a male would be far more memorable, given a status of privilege.
Furthermore, our pool of males surveyed is far smaller compared to our pool of
non-male responders, meaning that the probabilities gathered from the smaller sample
size will be less accurate.
Analyzing our workplace-specific question, Have you ever felt uncomfortable in
the workplace because of your gender?, we found that there is a 41% chance that you
have felt uncomfortable in your workplace as a non-male. This means 1 out of every 2.4
non-males have felt uncomfortable, while the male chances are 1 out of every 3.4,
which is a almost one half versus one third chances. This is closer than we
imagined, though again the different amounts of male and non-males surveyed remains
a fault in the compared probabilities.
Looking back at our essential question, it is possible to correctly say that out of
the pool of male adults who took this survey, majority of the males who take part in the
High Tech High community do not feel that they are given less opportunities in the
workspace and or feel that they have been discouraged from doing something because
of their gender. In fact, only 2 of the 17 male participants said yes to the question, Have
you ever felt you were given less opportunities because of your gender?. That is only
12% out of the pool of males which means that the other 88% answered no.
Furthermore, only 4 out of the 17 males said yes to the question, Have you ever been
discouraged from doing something because of your gender?. Thats about a quarter of
the participants, 24%. Now this does not fully conclude that all males who take part in

High Tech High feel they are not given less opportunities or are discouraged.
Regretfully, our sample size was not large enough to go by the Law of Large Numbers.
If we were to get more than 51 survey participants, our numbers could be completely
different but using the data we have, we figure that the majority of males who take part
in High Tech High do not feel that they are discouraged to do anything due to their
gender and do not feel that they are given less opportunities because of their gender.
All in all, our data has shown that yes adults at high tech high feel discriminated
against in the workplace and even more so, women at high tech high feel the most
discrimination. As we said earlier though, our data is not fully conclusive because we did
not get enough participants to take the survey but out of what we got, we can answer
yes to our essential question.

Privilege & Probability

Privilege is a social construct that affects every person, sometimes to their
advantage, and sometimes very negatively. It is something that gives people with
privilege (white, upper class, male) benefits and advantages that someone withouts
these things would have to work much harder for to obtain. Getting into colleges, getting
a job, and how people treat you can all be affected by your privilege.
Probability is the measure of the likeliness that an event will occur. That means it
is the likeliness of something happening or not happening. For instance, if you have 5
green marbles and 3 red marbles, you have a total of 8 marbles in all. Now, if you were
to pick a red marble the theoretical probability is . What your data might actually show
can be different because that is your experimental probability. The experimental
probability is the ratio of the number of times an event occurs to the total number of
trials or times the activity is performed. This doesnt mean the experiment will always be
correct. There is also something called independant and dependant events, which are
used to calculate the probabilities of two or more events happening, one after another.
Independent events are events that have no effect on the probability of the other event
happening. Dependant events, as the name implies, are events whose results rely on
each other. For instance, picking a two hearts from a deck of cards, without replacing
cards, is a dependant event. If one heart is picked, the pool of possible options is
smaller, so the probabilities are changed.
Privilege affects probability in many different ways. People with more privilege
will have higher chances of getting certain things, therefore the probability of them
succeeding in life or other opportunities is higher than maybe someone who doesn't get
those things.
Abby Reflection:
My privilege of being caucasian and a woman helps me a lot through life. For
example, because I am a girl people tend to take this easy on me and in a sense that
could be good but if i wanted to be challenged it wouldn't help. Also, the police don't
question me or look at me because Im white. Thats awful though and its something I
don't really like appreciating. One non-privilege I have is not being male and it hurts me
because there are sexist people who don't appreciate women like me. Sometimes
people don't expect I can do certain things because I am a woman and so they don't
ask me to help or participate. I can make this positive though by believing in myself and
overcoming sexist comments/actions etc by showing them what I can do. I am willing to
sacrifice my comfort in my privilege to make the world just by using my power of race to
help other minorities get things that maybe aren't available to them due to race.
Bens Reflection:
My life has been filled with privilege. Just being alive is a privilege that a lot of
people do
not get to experience. Going along in life I have just so much that have not noticed other
peoples struggles. I can use the privilege that I have been bestowed since birth to help
people that have been born into less privilege. Helping people by giving up some of the

comforts of our everyday lives is the only way to help people and people should try to
do something about it.
Gretas Reflection:
I have a lot of privilege because of how I was born. Just being white, being born
into a stable family economically and socially, and being straight, are all examples of
how I have been given unfair advantages over other people born with less privilege.
While its hard to pinpoint events that dont affect you negatively, I am certain that there
have been countless times when my privilege has benefited me, even without my
knowledge. That being said, I have also been faced with instances of non-privilege,
given the fact that I am a female. That disadvantage makes me have to work harder in
certain respects to prove myself, and I am aware of it. In the whole, however, I know I
am far more privileged than not. I believe that if everyone, including myself, are aware
of what privileges they are party to, then we can all begin to stop injustice and prejudice
against those who face discrimination on the basis of their race, gender, social class,
and sexual orientation. We can all use the privilege that we have been given to assist
those who lack it, and just by being aware of the situation, the whole world would be
better off.
Gabriels Reflection:
Growing up in a small town in Mexico I didnt at the time care about, or think
about, the amount of privilege I really had. The moment I started to really think about
the privileges I had was when I came to the US and matured throughout the years. For
me my main privilege is being a male. I say this because I have seen the discrimination
non males get and how they are treated because of either looks and/or traits. Even
though I feel this way, I feel that this is unfair and unequal to those others. Throughout
this project I witnessed the type of discrimination others get for example my mother.
When I first interviewed her about her own experiences with inequality, I found it heart
breaking knowing she has been discriminated and gone through cruelty because of her
gender. I saw that people would try to take advantage of her, but with males I dont ever
see that that happens. I am happy to know that I have my own privileges but at the
same time I feel guilty that I have greater privileges than other people.

Abby Sebert
10/29/15
PM Class
Context Research: Gender Bias in the Workspace
For my background research, I read the article Women in the Workplace 2015: Is
Gender Bias Part of the Story? on the Huffington Post website. This piece is a summary of a
data study done about woman in the workplace by McKinsey & Company and was updated in
October, 2015. It first discusses the different levels there are from men to women. What this
means is that a woman's level of success rate is different than a man. In the article they
explain, The study shows that, in fact, women leave at most levels at a lower rate than men.
But they advance from one level to the next more slowly than men. What this means is that
men tend to leave a particular workplace more than women but also that they are the ones who
succeed more and in fact get to advance levels. This article continues on to talk about Line
Positions. Line positions are the executives and other bigwigs, whereas Staff Positions are
jobs like accountants or communications. Here the article tells, Women in line positions are
less likely to advance to the top. And women express greater concern about the stress that
comes with top jobs. Women are afraid now. Afraid that they might fail due to the negativity
given because of their sex. Huffington post then ends the article by giving solutions to stop
gender bias, By exposing and reducing what gender bias there is, we can remove one of many
factors holding women back. Until we all, men and women, become aware of the unconscious
ways of thinking (our biases), the workplace will not get the full benefits of gender (or any other
kind of) diversity

Abby Sebert
PM Class
12/4/2014
Implicit Biases: Shelley Halpain

Shelley Halpain is a neurobiologist and also a current professor in the Department of

Biological Sciences at the University of California, San Diego. Before becoming a professor, she
got her Ph.D in Neuroscience from the Rockefeller University. Her research focuses on the
molecular basis for neural development. Some of her work relates to many brain disorders
ranging from autism to Alzheimer's disease. She is also an huge advocate for the work of
women scientists.
When explaining the challenges of being a woman in her field she says, I wasnt really
aware of any bias against me because I was female. Nevertheless in hindsight, I think there
probably was some systematic biases but not at a conscious level. And I think this was the big
fight that people who experience bias of all kinds whether its gender bias or racial or sexual
orientation or religious biases, it's all what were mainly facing these days which is implicit bias
which is sort of a hidden bias that many or most people including us and including me have in
the way we make hidden assumptions about our expectations of people. This struck me
because I never knew there was such a thing as implicit bias. After listening to her say that I
realized what she meant and actually recalled moments in my life where I absentmindedly made
those biases against others. It really made me wonder about what other expectations I have
made, or even those made of me. Shelley then continues to talk about how she dealt with
certain biases and expectations of her, I decided to take an approach that works very well for
men which is to kinda work behind the scenes, use your contacts to try to make a difference and
so I had just happened to meet at a dinner party earlier that month with the associate vice
chancellor and I got on the phone with him and just mentioned my experience and how it made
me feel and I think that that practice then stopped. I thought that this was very intuitive and
sorta fearless of her to do because she decided that she was going to speak up about an issue
bothering her and also used an approach that wouldn't exactly be expected of a woman. The
thing that she said that struck me the most was, The first step of trying to combat it, is raising
people's awareness. Its hard to fight your own impulses if you're not even aware of them
yourself right? Its true for any habit that we have and so what I did in that instance was just try
to point out and alert people who were in a position of power and influence that you know, this is
happening. This was very inspiring to me because I know and understand what its like to fight
my impulses just to make people happy and to not cause any unnecessary trouble but after
hearing her say this I realized its not unnecessary if its something bothering me or others. This
then gave me hope, hope that there is a good thing to speaking your mind.
I really enjoyed this interview with Dr. Halpain. I thought what she said was really eyeopening and very interesting. I also liked the fact that she was so into us asking her about the
topic of gender bias. She really took towards the questions which made the interview engaging
and fun. I hope to one day be as passionate about my work and raising awareness on topics I
love as much as she does.