I have two maybe odd examples where I had an opposite of normal bias/prejudice. I had a smart mom growing up and stories of an amazing grandma. I grew up _know

I have two maybe odd examples where I had an opposite of normal bias/prejudice. I had a smart mom growing up and stories of an amazing grandma. I grew up _knowing_ woman are smarter than men and men made up for it with physical strength. This was largely reinforced in high school where many girls held top academic positions and few boys matched them. Heck, I can recall the first time I met a “dumb girl,” I was in my late teens or early twenties and she was a stoner chick who dated a friend of a brother in law. It was mind warping as I thought girls were incapable of being as dumb as guys. Fast forward to getting my teaching credential, and I was exposed to the concept that many held the bias that woman were worse at math. Queue studies of poorer math performance for girls and some of the reasons behind it. I talked to my neighbor, a former college math and physics professor, and he agreed that woman couldn’t keep up with men, especially when 3d visualization came in. This did not jive with my biases and required time to process. Given data and studies, I can academically see the issues that could negatively affect woman’s performance and presence in math and math-focused fields. But emotionally, I have trouble accepting it due to how I was raised. I did not fully abandon my bias on woman being smarter than men, but through education and bias training, I’ve come to learn about issues that negatively affect woman esp. around math education. Meeting people who don’t match a prejudiced model and learning about the historical reasons why the bias exists are important. Related, I have a bias that older people should be wiser and more experienced. As an interviewer, we took some bias training and I learned that many hold that older candidates often fight agism. I learned I was unconsciously expecting more from older candidates and that was unfair. I had to combat my bias and temper my expectations and know it was ok if an older candidate only did as well as a younger candidate.