[SparkyRobinson]

Thanks, and fair enough. I've actually read into that before also. I think it's in freakonomics, where they found that if a black person had a typically white name on their resume they'd have more chance of a callback.

I know cultural diversity is a problem, I just don't think that's the way to solve it. Maybe I should have explained that I know everyone doesn't have the same views as myself, I just don't think the equal and opposite views are the way forward.

Unfortunately I'm in no way qualified enough to discuss how to fix it. I think it's an education issue at the ground level.

[mjb394]

Education is where the least disparity occurs. Everyone, regardless of demographics, goes to the same lectures, turns in the same projects, takes the same exams, gets graded on the same rubric.

Bias and discrimination creeps in once humans start to make judgments on things that aren't so clear cut. There is no objective scale for a resume, or a conference proposal. People use their intuition and judgment to make decisions about hiring, and speaker selection, and salary offers, and everything else- and that intuition has been shown to be unconsciously biased in many studies, including the ones you referenced.

It's probably very frustrating, as a white male (according to the picture on the article at least), to feel like the deck might be stacked against you in some way, in some situations, at some companies. It's also very frustrating as a minority in a field to know that it is, for it to have been shown to be true both in your own experience and in decades of research.

Solutions are up for debate. No one has the best answer. What is happening is an iterative process towards something that is better, that works for more people, more of the time.