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  <div class="head"><h1>Stereotype Threat</h1></div>
  <div class="head"><h4>January 9, 2015</h4></div>
  <div class="head"><h4><NAME></h4></div>

  <section>
    <p>
      In this blog post, I'm probably supposed to talk about how stereotype threat applies to me as a woman. However, I've found that my humanities degree has affected me in terms of stereotypes more than has my gender. I majored in History and minored in French. Since I moved back to the Bay Area after college I've found that I've encountered prejudice because of my field of study, and I've felt that my degree (and my personality, because of what I chose to study) makes a certain (negative) statement about my level of intelligence.
    </p>
    <p>
      People make comments all the time about how useless humanities degrees are. One bold woman even told my mom that she was stupid for letting me study History. There is one moment in particular that I will never forget - I was at bar trivia. I was with a friend and we decided to make new friends and join another team. This new team was full of men from the tech industry. A question came up: "The Rosetta Stone helped to translate which Egyptian language?" "Hieroglyphics!" I immediately said. One of the guys at the table said "Uh, I think it's cuneiform." I told him "No. Cuneiform is not Egyptian, was not on the Rosetta Stone, and it is not a language - it's a style of writing. I hate to say this, but I actually have a degree in History, AND I've seen the Rosetta Stone, so I do know what I'm talking about." 'Boom' I thought, and I walked to the bar to grab a beer.
    </p>
    <p>
      When the trivia announcer was saying the answers, he said that heiroglyphics was the answer. I started high-fiving my new teammates, and they stood around awkwardly. "What's up?" I asked. "We got the question right!" They explained that while I was at the bar, they put down 'cuneiform' as their answer and handed it in before I could get back. I honestly think that they believed, because they work with computers and have jobs at one of the biggest companies in Silicon Valley, that they were smarter than a girl with a History degree. I actually have to say that this is one of the main motivating factors for me to get into programming - to prove these kids of people wrong.
    </p>
    <p>
      I know this isn't the same kind of stereotype threat that black people, or Latino people, or women experience when they are faced with having to prove their intelligence or their worth. However, I do know that if I had to take a test where I was told "We want to test the intelligence of people who study History and people who study Pharmacology," I would perform in a similar way to the black students in Claude Steele's experiments.
    </p>
    <p>
      As far as feedback and stereotype threat, I will make sure that feedback that I give is focused on the work and not on the person that is doing the work. When I ask for feedback, I will ask "How can my work improve" instead of "How can I improve." I think I can make my environment more welcoming and avoid stereotype threat by being aware of situations that would encourage stereotype threat and by making more of an effort to be personal and prejudice-neutral.
    </p>


  </section>

  <table>
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      <td>
        <a href="http://rebeccacaroline.github.io/blog/c5-feedback.html">Earlier</a><commit_msg>fix typos<commit_after><!DOCTYPE html>
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  <link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Lobster|Open+Sans+Condensed:300' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>
  <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../stylesheets/blog-stylesheet.css" >
  <title>Stereotype Threat</title>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
</head>

<body>
  <div class="head"><h1>Stereotype Threat</h1></div>
  <div class="head"><h4>January 9, 2015</h4></div>
  <div class="head"><h4><NAME></h4></div>

  <section>
    <p>
      In this blog post, I'm probably supposed to talk about how stereotype threat applies to me as a woman. However, I've found that my humanities degree has affected me in terms of stereotypes more than has my gender. I majored in History and minored in French. Since I moved back to the Bay Area after college I've found that I've encountered prejudice because of my field of study, and I've felt that my degree (and my personality, because of what I chose to study) makes a certain (negative) statement about my level of intelligence.
    </p>
    <p>
      People make comments all the time about how useless humanities degrees are. One bold woman even told my mom that she was stupid for letting me study History. There is one moment in particular that I will never forget - I was at bar trivia. I was with a friend and we decided to make new friends and join another team. This new team was full of men from the tech industry. A question came up: "The Rosetta Stone helped to translate which Egyptian language?" "Hieroglyphics!" I immediately said. One of the guys at the table said "Uh, I think it's cuneiform." I told him "No. Cuneiform is not Egyptian, was not on the Rosetta Stone, and it is not a language - it's a style of writing. I hate to say this, but I actually have a degree in History, AND I've seen the Rosetta Stone, so I do know what I'm talking about." 'Boom' I thought, and I walked to the bar to grab a beer.
    </p>
    <p>
      When the trivia announcer was reading off the answers, he said that heiroglyphics was the answer to the question mentioned aboveg. I started high-fiving my new teammates, and they stood around awkwardly. "What's up?" I asked. "We got the question right!" They explained that while I was at the bar, they put down 'cuneiform' as their answer and handed it in before I could get back. I honestly think that they believed, because they work with computers and have jobs at one of the biggest companies in Silicon Valley, that they were smarter than a girl with a History degree. I actually have to say that this is one of the main motivating factors for me to get into programming - to prove these kinds of people wrong.
    </p>
    <p>
      I know this isn't the same kind of stereotype threat that black people, or Latino people, or women in the STEM field experience when they are faced with having to prove their intelligence or their worth. However, I do know that if I had to take a test where I was told "We want to test the intelligence of people who study History and people who study Pharmacology," I would perform in a similar way to the black students in Claude Steele's experiments.
    </p>
    <p>
      As far as feedback and stereotype threat, I will make sure that feedback that I give is focused on the work and not on the person that is doing the work. When I ask for feedback, I will ask "How can my work improve" instead of "How can I improve." I think I can make my environment more welcoming and avoid stereotype threat by being aware of situations that would encourage stereotype threat and by making more of an effort to be personal and prejudice-neutral.
    </p>


  </section>

  <table>
    <tr>
      <td>
        <a href="http://rebeccacaroline.github.io/blog/c5-feedback.html">Earlier</a>
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