Before the economy took a nose dive. In my area of the office we had 3 males and 3 females working. The bosses made a decision to fire some people, and only kept the best workers. There are now 3 females and 1 male.

A confirmation bias is when we believe something to be true, and therefore take greater notice of events that confirm this belief, and alternatively dismiss contradicting evidence as exceptional occurrences. When we expect women to be catty and emotional, we take note every time something happens to confirm it and we commit it to memory. When a man does the same, we almost immediately dismiss it, or not even acknowledge it as "cattiness" or emotional behaviour.