This spring I have a class with a significant imbalance between men and women – 9 women and 26 men have enrolled. Any thoughts on whether to spread the women out, bunch them together, or it doesn’t matter?
In Computer Science, this type of imbalance (10-20% women) is typical. In fields (like CS) where women tend to be underrepresented, best practices generally say that you should never leave a woman in a group by herself. Isolating a female student can unnecessarily
aggravate variety of contextual factors (stereotype threat, impostor syndrome, defensive classroom climates, etc.). I can't say if similar effects happen in other fields, but this seems to be the consensus in CS.
Further information about the UBC Mailing Lists service can be found on the UBC IT website.