I’ve been focusing on bias as a data point, rather than seeing it as something purely negative.

In doing this, I work to make bias conscious, in myself and for others. By taking this approach, bias is transformed from a barrier to separate people to a bridge to bring them together.

I am operating in a place of paradox.

The thing with paradoxes is that they are places of tension, where two opposing and seemingly mutually exclusive things are held together – in tension. As an able-bodied white person, I will never experience the bias and discrimination that people of colour and those with disabilities regularly face. But as a 66-year-old woman I do know what bias and discrimination in terms of age and gender look like. And therein lies the paradox of being The Bias Specialist. I’m white. I’m able-bodied. And I’m a woman in her older years.  

At the core of bias is categorisation which leads to assumptions about what people in various groups can or can’t do and what qualities they have.

Some question why it seems there are so many white people facilitating in the unconscious bias and diversity and inclusion space – the implication being that white people, yet again, are the dominant voices and minorities are being edged out or disregarded. My perspective is that as a white person who faces, and speaks candidly about, my racism and white privilege I can help change the viewpoints and actions of the dominant group that sets and supports structures of inequality and injustice and use my privilege to open up spaces for those who don’t have the same opportunities.

On the flip side, being an older person – a baby boomer – people make assumptions about my political leanings, my technological ability, and my capacity to care for the environment that do not actually reflect the truth about my life. And being a woman who was raised in a patriarchal conservative community, I know intimately the limitations placed on women – the disregarding, the silencing, the abuse. I experience bias and discrimination in two areas of my life over which I have no control – my age and my gender.

As The Bias Specialist, I hold together in tension both the privileges that my skin colour and ability afford me and the discrimination that my gender and age open me up to. I can use the understanding and insight that I gain from operating in this place of paradox to turn the barriers that bias can throw up into bridges for people to cross and connect.