A man and his son are in a terrible car accident. The father dies, and the son is rushed to the emergency room in critical condition. In the operating room, the surgeon looks at the boy and exclaims, “I can’t operate on this boy, he is my son!” How can this be?
If it took you a moment to realize that the surgeon is the boy’s mother, you are in good company. One reason many people struggle with this riddle is because we rely on an implicit, or unconscious, assumption that certain fields (like STEM) and certain roles (like surgeon) are better suited to men than women. Even though most people do not want to be biased, we all have unconscious preferences for certain groups. Because biases can be socialized, sometimes we even have biases against groups that we are members of. For example, women are just as likely as men to show bias against women.
