Gender issues

The following are my notes from Kanter's keynote address at the  HBS Gender & Work Conference , February 28, 2013. A video introduction was prepared for Kanter (a surprise) that involved a retrospective on her contributions, books, 1986 Tale of O, comments by  Nitin Nohria [HBS Dean] speaking about the importance of her work,  Herminia Ibarra praising Kanter's ability to conceptualize; come up with key points, common pattern, underlying idea that pulls it all together;  Rakesh Khurana  on her contributions to how can we create communities, groups, organizations that allow that feeling of connectedness, solidarity, and let individuals maintain their individuality, really cares about making society better; after video presentation, long hug with Ely near podium, “literally speechless”, unexpected honor of the video. Important provocative research and designs this morning; got a little depressed though; how we think about the research we do so that we make sure t

The following are notes from Robert Livingston's presentation at the  HBS Gender & Work Conference , February 28, 2013. Gender in organizations: A matter of rank? Women and minorities not underrepresented at lower ranks, but are in upper ranks. 13 Fortune 500 CEOs women (2013); first woman CEO was Katherine Graham, a position she inherited from her father. 12 Fortune 500 CEOs are Black, Ursula Burns first female, 2009. Agency penalty for appearing too assertive, angry, or self-promoting; violation of prescriptive stereotypes ( Rudman, 1998 ). Women " should" be warm.  Ann Hopkins : Double-bind; defied descriptive stereotype of incompetence but also prescriptive stereotype of warmth. Does backlash apply to all women leaders? Additive predition: Black female = Black + female Intersectional predition: Black female ≠ Black + female Intersectionality can produce certain advantages by marginalizing Black women to the point of irrelevance. Stereotypes of Black

The following are my notes from Amy Cuddy's presentation at the  HBS Gender & Work Conference , February 28, 2013. How experiences of discrimination are different for Black and White women, specifically how they’re seen as mothers. When Amy first moved to Chicago to work at Kellogg with her four-year-old kid, she moved into a nice neighborhood and a mother in the neighborhood excluded Amy’s son from playdates and put Amy down for working, being blond, being skinny, and took this resentment out on Amy's son. Amy attributed the treatment to the fact that Amy was the only working mom on the block. Another example of the mistreatment was when a girl fell and hurt herself in the park; a mother accused Amy’s son of having an “aggression problem” even though he hadn't touched the girl. Amy talked to her colleague Kathy Phillips  about her experience -- about all the pressure she felt to stay home and take care of her child and be a "good" mom -- but Kath

The following are my notes from Glick 's  HBS Gender & Work Conference  presentation, February 28, 2013. “The battle of the sexes will never end -- there's too much fraternizing with the enemy” - Henry Kissinger Paradox: The interdependence of the sexes -- male dominance coexists with intimate dependence on women. Ambivalent sexism theory ( Glick & Fiske, 1996 ): Dominance & intimate interdependence lead to hostile sexism (HS, directed toward women who threaten male power) and benevolent sexism (BS, directed at women who conform to feminine ideals, serve men’s needs), respectively. Sample items of HS and BS . BS is a pedestal: A narrow and confined space, difficult to stay up on, especially in high heels. BS justifies HS, fosters unrecognized, patronizing discrimination, elicits backlash when resisted, saps women’s career ambitions, makes inequality more palatable. For men, BS protects self image, they can see themselves as not an oppressor, but rather as a provider

The following are my notes from Robin Ely's introduction to  the  HBS Gender & Work Conference , February 28 2013.      8 women students joined 676 men students at HBS in 1963; now there's 40% women students at HBS.      Purpose of this conference: What impact can we have? How can we use our research as a lever for change?      Mission for the W50 [50th Anniversary of Women at HBS]: Accelerating the advancement of women leaders who make a (positive) difference in the world .      Nitin Nohria [Dean of HBS] supported this conference, and wanted to make it big; Robin thought to invite ~50 people, then Amy Cuddy joined, created their wish list together (who’re all the cool people we know doing great work on gender), and the list kept getting longer and longer; invited just about everybody and just about everybody came.      Nitin Noria is a feminist. When Robin asked if it was okay to call him that, Nohria responded that she could call him anything she wanted to, but that

Maureen Dowd's Article, " Pompom Girl for Feminism ," elicited negative comments about Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO trying to encourage women in business; my comment below.