> The notion of bias being self-enforcing is questionable as well. It seems obvious, to me at least, that people don't pursue careers in areas where no one loo

> The notion of bias being self-enforcing is questionable as well. It seems obvious, to me at least, that people don't pursue careers in areas where no one looks like them, therefore creating a self fulfilling prophecy. > one that has not been empirically verified Historically women were excluded from many scientific fields. The effect of female role models has been studied (a lot [1][2]) and there's no denying the real world impact representation (or lack of it) can have. [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/margiewarrell/2020/10/09/seeing-is-believing-female-role-models-inspire-girls-to-rise/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/margiewarrell/2020/10/09/seeing... [2] https://thesocietypages.org/trot/2017/02/22/the-role-of-female-role-models/ https://thesocietypages.org/trot/2017/02/22/the-role-of-fema...