GenderMag Resources

GenderMag is a research-based method your department and individual faculty and staff can use to find, fix, and avert gender-biases in the technology and informational resources you provide to prospective students, current students, alumni, donors, staff, faculty, and any other internal or external stakeholders. GenderMag focuses toward creating equitable technology and information interaction experiences for women and people of any minoritized gender. In the process, it improves everyone else’s experiences. Research has shown that it is very accurate and very effective; see https://gendermag.org/research.php for specific evidence.

GenderMag has been used by universities, colleges, and technology organizations in over 30 states and over 50 countries. The GenderMag Project is co-directed by Dr. Margaret Burnett and Dr. Anita Sarma at Oregon State University (OSU).

Departments can adopt GenderMag by encouraging their personnel (IT, office, and other staff, students workers, faculty, etc.) to receive GenderMag training and by incentivizing or otherwise supporting their usage of GenderMag on the user-facing designs they produce. GenderMag resources are all free and linked from their website, as is their free GenderMag Online Course. A good place to begin is the “GenderMag Kit” (GenderMag.org > “GenderMag Method: What & How” > “Download Kit & Forms”).

GenderMag has multiple entries in the BPCnet Activity Library that might be of interest depending on your department’s or your needs:

• GenderMag Project for individuals, teams or departments;
• GenderMag-Teach for individual faculty and departments;
• GenderMag Online Course for all.

These activities can be cascaded. For example, in a multi-year BPC plan, individuals and teams could start with GenderMag Online Course to get the certificates. In later years, GenderMag-Teach could be used in teaching by the department, and the GenderMag Project further used by all on project outcomes and materials.

Examples of how to incorporate into a CISE proposal (PI):

• If your proposal develops tools or websites, you can use the GenderMag method to find and fix user-facing gender biases from those tools. The kit or free online course will show you how to do so. Evidence shows that doing so is very effective.
• If you teach courses, you can teach portions of GenderMag in your classes. GenderMag-Teach provides many resources you can use to do so.

Examples of how to incorporate into a departmental BPC plan (Department Chair):

• You can use the GenderMag method to find and fix user-facing gender biases from your department’s online materials (e.g., applications for scholarships, website, forms students have to fill out, etc.). The kit or free online course will show you how to do so.
• You can teach portions of GenderMag in your department’s classes. GenderMag-Teach provides many resources for doing so. Evidence shows that doing so can increase retention and the education climate.