Gender issues

The following are my notes from Bell's presentation at the HBS Gender & Work Conference , February 28 2013 Went by Robin [Ely] ’s instructions to “think about giving a Ted talk” – not a traditional research paper, her version of a Ted Talk [images of professional women of different colors flashing in the background] Right before your eyes: A retrospect on research and what we need to start thinking about Ella and Stella Nkomo wrote a book  in 2001 about differences between and among Black women and White women; deep void in managerial literature on African-American women, rendered invisible. 2001 was not a good year for Black women in business and leadership roles. Black women managers faced sexism intertwined with racism; whereas White women may face a glass ceiling that at least allowed them to be seen and gave them something to shatter ,   Black women face a concrete wall,  rendering them helpless to break it, invisible to managers’ and others' eyes, and exclude...

The following are my notes from Eagly's presentation at the HBS Gender & Work Conference , February 28 2013 Interest in differences for psychologists stems from interest in nature v. nurture. Articles about women as leaders (Sargent, 1981; Loden, 1985; Helgesen, 1990; Rosener, 1990 etc.) saying women are different as leaders, more cooperative, less hierarchical provided an appealing message that many women found affirming, but that was consistent with stereotypes. Eagly interested in whether social science data could confirm these generalizations, and if so, does women’s participation make groups more effective & companies more profitable? Do women pursue different goals as leaders, have different values? 1990 meta-analysis of classic forms of leadership – most robust difference confirmed tradebooks – women more democratic and participative; that difference was larger in female-dominated roles; women more like men in male-dominated roles; women not really more communal, ex...

The following are my notes from Stone's presentation at the HBS Gender & Work Conference , March 1 2013 It's hard to believe we are here 50 years after women were admitted to Harvard Business School to talk about women “opting out.” Women are underrepresented in professions and leadership positions; not an issue of  recruiting them into these fields, rather an issue of keeping women in these fields. High-achieving women’s time out of career: up to 40% report taking some time out during their careers (Reimers & Stone, 2008; Hewlett & Luce, 2005; Goldin & Katz, 2008). What accounts for women taking these voluntary and very costly exits? One interpretation: women are choosing to be home (“ Why women still can’t have it all ,” “ The case for staying home ,” “ I don’t know how she does it ,” “ The ten year nap ,” and so on). Personal story: Back when Pam was a soccer mom, a friend named Ann she knew from the soccer fields helped organize an effort at the end o...

The following are my notes from Correll's presentation at the  HBS Gender & Work Conference , March 1 2013 Motherhood wage penalty: mothers earn less than men -- whether or not those men have children -- and less than childless women. The gender wage gap is largely due to bias against mothers. Holding all kinds of human capital factors (e.g., experience, performance) and workplace factors (e.g., hours worked, type of job) constant, this wage penalty holds. Four possible interventions: (1) mothers’ own efforts, (2)    policies to reduce unconscious bias, (3) family friendly legal mandates, and (4) family friendly organizational policies. Unconventional wisdom: Family friendly legal mandates hold promise, the rest of the solutions above fall short.  Correll, Benard & Paik, 2007 : employees evaluated for management consultant position in vignette experiment. Childless women were about twice as likely to be called back or recommended for hire ...

Nitin Nohria, Dean of the Harvard Business School, attended the Gender and Work Conference this morning and made some opening comments to its attendees. He opened his remarks with, "It's nice to be a feminist in a room full of feminists." Nohria explained that he had received many thank you's and expressions of gratitude from the attendees for his support of this conference, but that it was really  he who should be thanking us for being "intrepid" explorers of the frontier of studying gender at work. He reflected on the fact that law schools had made more and earlier progress integrating women into their faculties and student bodies than business schools. Nohria attributed this to the fact that the study of gender was de-marginalized as a topic earlier in law schools, where it has long been considered a legitimate field of study. This is starting to occur in business schools thanks to people like us. Nohria ended by thanking us, as one feminist to others, ...

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 tha...

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...