In Conversation with our Presidents: Gender Equality as a Key Building Block to Research

V-BRYGE 2023 Co-Presidents, Ann-Alice Tichá and Ella Xiao sat down to talk about their experiences as women in a male-dominated field, running V-BRYGE, inclusivity, and much more. Read their transcribed conversation below!

Alice: Ella, how does working with other women in research inform your experience? 

Ella: I’m grateful to be in a historically women’s college to finish my college education. Wellesley is a place that cherishes everyone’s perspective regardless of their gender. The biggest thing I gained from this experience is that I’m not afraid to ask questions and engage in discussions, no matter what the topic is and whether or not I am originally confident in talking about it. Being with women in a research environment who had similar experiences to me makes me feel safe, and thus encouraged to stay curious and stay active in things I’m passionate about and in anything that happens in our world.

Alice: Thank you for sharing your experience Ella! I actually resonate with this idea of a safe space because I myself am often guilty of not speaking up or just formulating my words, thoughts, and ideas loud and clear. Once I got tired of others (often men) just repeating what I said but louder, I decided enough was enough and promised myself to speak up. Vanguard Think Tank and V-BRYGE have so far always been primarily female-led, so on the one side, it makes me really happy that women feel comfortable in our organizations; on the other, I think it is amazing that the platform we provide effectively helps women voice their opinions and to speak up. Weirdly enough, our hiring process never had a gender quota; it just somehow always turned out like this.

Ella: From what we just discussed, I can tell the reasons why we both would stand for promoting gender equality in research. But apart from personal experience and normative principle, what are some of the more “practical” benefits gender equality brings to research?

Alice: Apart from the obvious normative argument that research should be inclusive, there is the fundamental issue of research bias. Herich, Heine, and Norenzayan famously define the “WEIRD” problem of psychology, where research subjects are predominantly from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic backgrounds. This introduces a detrimental research bias, yielding inaccurate results. How can we say that something about our society is true when we omit important demographic groups? What if we omit about half of society –– women?

Ella: I think here it’s also important to point out how gender inequality is intersected with other social factors such as economic status, race, and culture and ethnicity. You mentioned how research subjects are dominated by a certain perspective, and I think gender inequality is even more consequential when women from lower-income backgrounds or suffering from discrimination are also negatively impacted by their disadvantaged position of being “female.”

Alice: Honestly, I find it, personally, a little difficult to comment on gender, race, and class issues in a United States context. I am very aware my understanding of these complex issues is limited, and thus I will not go ahead and speak on behalf of any demographic group.

My personal lived experience is that being different often chews away at your perceived ability and credibility. It also puts you on the spot, making it more difficult to come back from making mistakes, which, let’s face it, everybody does. Back to my point, if you are a woman, you get “points deducted”; if you are a member of a minority race or ethnic or cultural group, you get “points deducted” for each. When it boils down to the hypothetical final evaluation of perceived ability, a person with multiple minority identities might get an 80%, even if their actual ability is at 95%. In some societies, this difference is larger; sometimes, people actively try to prevent you from succeeding, and sometimes, it is “just” a slight “discount” or playing with a handicap. 

I believe this is why talking about our experience is so important. Once you realize other people that share your identity or background have similar experiences, you see that it is no longer a coincidence, and you can better formulate your response, ideally as a community. This is what our organization is about, sharing experiences and helping people of all backgrounds succeed.

Ella: V-BRYGE is a conference that gathers a lot of female leaders. We didn’t intentionally “hire” female members, but an environment that advocates for a diversity of pronouns eventually gets us she/her, they/them, together with he/him and more. Gender is not a label; what’s more important is how we view each other with open hearts. I believe that this attitude transcends the issue of gender equality, toward cultural connections and peacebuilding.